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I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve a bit more than usual in this blog. It'll be the last one for a while, I've got a lot of overland travel in the next few days. In some ways this bit of writing is prompted by some mathematics. Those of you who follow @WildTigerNews on Twitter would have seen the link to the media article yesterday giving the very disturbing figures of leopard deaths, data supplied by the Wildlife Protection Society of India. I follow WPSI's data closely anyway but last night when I started calculating it all, incorporating statistics and news from here in Nepal, well it's pretty shocking. At that moment I tweeted I needed to go for a run, so I did...
You can see the date in the camera trap image is a year ago today. Facebook threw up the image as part of that memory post system it uses. The image was captured at a spot on the food grid system I used with Asa. We were meeting every few days but the young leopard was pretty much fending for himself at that stage. About a month later full separation was completed.
At the time I did have serious concerns about human activity in the area, there was tree felling and milling, something I wasn't warned about. Some of you would have followed those times in my blogs and one day I will tell the complete story. It was stressful. I was totally immersed in Asa's rewilding. Just over two weeks after this image was taken the first of the two major earthquakes struck. It was a very difficult time for Nepal.
Tomorrow I meet with Asis, I'm looking forward to it. He is doing a fantastic job supervising the rewilding of the two leopards, Tika and Ram. Asis will head into the jungle soon after, to continue the good work and to give handler Tika Ram Tharu a break. The guys have a good system going, the leopards are doing well. We all agreed some time ago that the program details need to be kept confidential for security issues but when it all reaches an appropriate stage there can be at least some public information.
The rewilding program is a positive but one of the very few right now regarding the leopard. The knowledge gained regarding leopard behaviour is invaluable. Those who follow things closely will know of the goals of the Leopard Task Force at wildleopard.net. There are a whole raft of factors. Better understanding is needed to meet the challenges of conflict situations and as I've admitted before leopard behaviour absorbs me.
There's no doubt Asis and I will talk of the deep bonds we have formed with leopards, not just through the individual cats in the rewilding program but our total admiration and respect for these animals. I don't like to use the word love because as I've pointed out before "love" is killing these animals. It is caging them, it is driving a skin and bone trade. My book will go into the psychology of this. Humans have developed a very warped perspective towards wildlife and big cats, as well as many other species, are suffering because of it.
I will wish Asis well for his upcoming jungle time, he's a clever guy, he will continue to do a great job and these two leopards have every chance. But my own journey will continue with a lot of news about leopards who have met a bad ending. I have my coping mechanisms but it is impossible not to be affected by this current situation. Going for a run helps. I also like to take my mind off things with good food, when it is available. I like to laugh with people. This crisis however, and the work that needs to be done is never too far away in my thinking, it has to be, we humans work best when we focus on a task with balance but with complete dedication.
In the last couple of weeks I've written about some of the good people involved and I will bring stories of others as time goes by. There are also those doing behind the scenes work, their stories can't be made public, the world of poaching and illegal wildlife trade is a complicated one where safety is paramount.
I've been concerned for some time about the news that does go public and people's reaction to it. I mentioned in my blog yesterday collaborations with the right people, such as journalist Pragati Shahi, to develop a strong platform for the right information to be put out there, news that is not tainted by agendas as this is a huge issue in the conservation sector. We'll have the thinking behind this in the upcoming WildTiger Journal. In the meantime please follow @WildTigerNews on Twitter and I'm also going to be driving funding again through the sale of images (and subscriptions) at my own Twitter feed @JackKinross. Part of our change will be our blogging platform. Multi media is also on the table.
So there's a lot going on. The practical side of things in the field is time consuming as is getting information out there and funding the whole process. The image of a dead leopard, either a photo or in the flesh is sobering, my days are full of this. The constant news of tiger, leopard and other species being mercilessly hunted means there is no real respite from this situation. I know deep in my heart the solutions can be effective, as an example the camera system we are introducing in west Nepal will make a difference. What I don't know is if species like the leopard will ever not be persecuted, I don't know if the general public, globally, really does care enough. Time will tell I guess so for now it's best to just drop those thoughts and get on with it...
