Catmosphere Foundation is to hold its second Catwalk on Saturday, November 5 – an outdoor event aiming to raise awareness about the importance of conserving the seven Big Cat species – tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, pumas, cheetahs, and snow leopards – with a special focus on Arabian leopards.
Catmosphere invites everyone to participate in this year’s event and support its objectives, wherever they are in the world, by registering and selecting the Big Cat species to which they dedicate their participation.
Catmosphere was founded by HRH Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud in 2021. The foundation encourages everyone to support collective wellbeing through its initiatives that aim to highlight the alignment between welfare, public health and environmental conservation. It aims to achieve this by linking sectors, partnerships, and society in uniquely impactful ways.
Last year's Catwalk attracted more than 27,000 participants from 102 countries. Their collective steps cumulatively totaled over 150,000 kilometers, as they participated in the event to advocate safeguarding the future of Big Cat species and public health. Catwalk is backed by numerous international partners, including the International Olympic Committee, the Special Olympics, Peace and Sport, the Association for International Sport for All (TAFISA), and Google.
Big Cats are more dependent on their environments than humans, and all are threatened by habitat loss. Tiger, lion, leopard, and cheetah populations have experienced habitat loss of between 65% and 96% of their historical ranges, according to figures released by leading wild cat conservation charity panthera.org.
The Catwalk is a seven-kilometer outdoor walk for awareness, held annually to raise awareness about the close links between our collective wellbeing and the living creatures around us. Owing to Catmosphere's diverse partnerships in Saudi Arabia, the Catwalk initiative is focusing on Arabian leopards, as they are a critically endangered subspecies.
Recognising the need for urgent action to safeguard the future of Arabian leopards, Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), one of Catmosphere’s partners, is leading a suite of initiatives to conserve this critically endangered subspecies. RCU is protecting six nature reserves, covering almost 50% of AlUla County, with rangers recruited from local communities to safeguard them. Work is ongoing to restore habitat, reintroduce native species, and conduct long-term biological monitoring and social outreach to prepare three priority sites for the eventual reintroduction of Arabian leopards. Critical to this vision, RCU is conserving the captive population through a conservation breeding program, including the development of a state-of-the-art centre in AlUa, which will aim to prepare leopards to survive in the wild.
An adorable addition has joined the AlUla family of animals: Two female Arabian leopard cubs.https://t.co/TzO6ldJxGu
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) August 18, 2022
Those in Saudi Arabia who wish to participate in Catwalk 2022 can register using the following website: https://halayalla.com/sa-ar/tickets/group/catwalk
There are already over 55 officially organized Catwalks in Saudi, now open for registration, with new locations being updated daily. Some other organizers, including the AlUla event, are inviting their own communities with their own localized registration processes.
Each participant chooses the Big Cat species they will dedicate their participation to, as a team motto, before completing the Catwalk distance wherever they are around the world. They can also join organized Catwalks, or organize their own and invite others to participate.
Including Arabian leopards, jackals, lynxes, sand cats, and honey badgers.https://t.co/m6VmvmgFbW
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) October 5, 2022
About Catmosphere
Founded in 2021 by HRH Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Catmosphere is a foundation that uses the stories of the 7 Big Cats (Leopard, Lion, Cheetah, Jaguar, Tiger, Puma, Snow Leopard, with a special focus on the Arabian Leopard), and their conservation challenges to encourage us all to take action to address our collective wellbeing. Catmosphere’s initiatives aim to fuse the concepts of health and conservation to straddle sectors, audiences and partnerships in uniquely impactful ways.
Catmosphere’s awareness-raising campaign, Catwalk, is positioned to amplify the joint work of the Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU) and Panthera in securing a future for the Critically Endangered Arabian Leopard in its native habitat.
