I first heard about the endangered Persian leopard when I was researching a story about the restoration of the Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq. It is in some ways a magical story…it certainly is a story of new possibilities. And it is definitely a story of hope.

One journalist suggests that in many ways, the Persian leopard could be considered the Kurds’ spirit animal: persecuted, squeezed from all sides, survivors finding refuge in the mountains. A Dutch film, ‘Sidik and the Panther’, offers finding the Persian leopard as a metaphor of hope for light after a dark time. If Sidik can find the leopard again in Northern Iraq, he believes, the region can be declared a national park and the mountains can be protected.

And it is the story of Hana Raza, a biologist from Nature Iraq who has been working to protect the Persian leopard and other flora and fauna in Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq and Iran for more than a decade. It is not easy work.