Pallas's Cat Filmed in Iran's Mazandaran Province

Majid Batebi, a wildlife enthusiast, has recorded rare footage of a Pallas's cat in the Mazandaran mountains of northern Iran. The brief video, shared on Instagram on August 15, 2026, depicts the shy cat approaching the camera before retreating into a cave. Batebi highlighted that the Pallas's cat is among Iran's rarest felids, with little information available regarding its population and distribution within the country. Iran represents the westernmost boundary of the species' range, which is predominantly found in Central Asia. This sighting emphasizes the need to safeguard the mountainous habitats of Mazandaran, particularly those beyond the Hyrcanian forest areas. Named after the Prussian naturalist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described it in 1776, the Pallas's cat was not photographed until 2012. In 2025, camera traps in Himachal Pradesh, India, provided the first photographic evidence of the manul in that area, while earlier this year, a family of Pallas's cats was documented in Qinghai Province, China. Approximately 60,000 Pallas's cats are believed to inhabit the wild, but their environment faces threats from overgrazing, mining, and herding dogs. These cats often take refuge in abandoned burrows of marmots and foxes, frequently changing dens, and their thick winter fur helps them blend into rocky terrains.