Pallas Cat Manul Yawning

Until the early 1970s, only two Pallas's cats were recorded in the Transcaucasus, both encountered near the Araks River in northwestern Iran, but no records existed from Azerbaijan. Populations in the Caspian Sea region, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are thought to be declining and becoming increasingly isolated.
In recent years, several Pallas' cats were photographed for the first time during camera trapping surveys:
- in Iran's Khojir National Park in 2008;
- in the Eastern Himalayas: in Bhutan's Wangchuck Centennial Park in April 2012; and above 4,100 m (13,500 ft) in the Jigme Dorji National Park in autumn 2012;