The trap cameras installed in the village of Yenokavan of Armenia’s Tavush Province have caught a leopard, WWF Armenia reports.

Earlier on 19 November 2019, a leopard reportedly attacked a Yenokavan resident. A laboratory examination of the animal’s hair taken as a sample from his clothes denied the claims that the villager had been attacked by a leopard. The test was performed in Germany and was said to show 99% accuracy. No leopard was also found during a field research.

Trusting the affected resident, Arman Gabrielyan, who still insisted he had been attacked by a leopard, WWF Armenia specialists continued the field research. As a result, the geography of cameras was expanded. Arman Gabrielyan, the residents of Yenokavan, as well as the Future Resort company provided great support to the research, WWF Armenia said.

The research gave a positive result and the cameras captured a leopard.

Thus, after a 50-year break, the leopard has returned to Tavush. The animal was last spotted in the area in the 1970s. Tavush became the fourth region in Armenia where a leopard lives, the fund said.

"It's like a real miracle, because the initial laboratory tests left only a 1% chance that the samples belonged to a leopard,” WWF Armenia Director Karen Manvelyan said, adding the research will go on.