The image is Ram shortly after he and his brother Tika had been moved to the Stage 2 area of the rewilding process they are undergoing. He climbed this dead tree to survey surroundings. It was about six metres high and the young leopard was a little uncertain as to how to get down, it was a vertical trunk stripped bare of more climbable bark. I posted an image a few days ago (29 January on Facebook) of him leaping to another tree.
The leopard adapted.
Leopards are remarkably adaptable. In today's world with threatened and fragmented habitat, poaching and a profile that very unfairly doesn't match their rock star cousins such as the tiger and the snow leopard, the leopard will have to become even more adaptable if the species is to continue.
In an upcoming blog I'm using the theme of our perceptions of big cats. The bottom line is we are getting it wrong because we are losing them. There are different perceptions in different circumstances... how do you compare the view of a westerner behind the safety of a computer screen admiring a beautiful leopard cub to that of a struggling villager who has lost livestock to a leopard... or even worse, has lost a family member?
Somehow, if we are to live with these animals, we have to become better adaptable ourselves. The leopard and other great cats, they are doing their best... are we doing ours?
I'm publish the blog when upcoming changes to wildtiger.org and wildleopard.net are completed. The main issues are human/wildlife conflict, how the use of technology can help mitigate those conflicts but above all, our attitude towards big cats, how it has to change or yeah, we will lose them.
Every single one in the wild is precious. It's up to every single one of us to recognize that...
