Those who follow these things will know that another leopard had to be extracted from an urban area in the Kathmandu Valley yesterday. Pragati kept me posted, the cat is now in the zoo with a decision to be made where and when the leopard will be placed. Here in the Kaski two cubs that have been left by their mother near a village are being monitored. A female leopard leaving her cubs for a few days while she hunts is normal behaviour.
The link below is an example of another dimension of leopard behaviour giving serious concern:
As I mentioned in my brief post on Facebook yesterday the leopard that killed two children recently in Baitaidi (adding to an alarming death toll) where I have just come from, could well be dead by now. Villagers retaliate in fear and in the tough terrain of the Himalayan middle hills where so much of this conflict is occurring it's extremely difficult to get accurate information. So action has to take place based on what information is available and as I've written many times before, poverty alleviation is vital.
Sometimes humanity needs to be bitten on the ass before there is understanding. Well the leopard is doing that and if we don't adapt we will lose this cat. My own vision of a rehabilitation centre which can provide solutions (treatment, translocation, rewilding with best practice) is still very much part of my focus but I wonder how much mayhem still has to take place before there is a real wake up on this issue. Believe me, leopard conservation is a huge challenge and right this minute I'd rate the future for these incredible cats as in the balance, 50/50...'
The link below is an example of another dimension of leopard behaviour giving serious concern:
Fear of leopard haunts Sariska villagers
Every day I wake up to messages and news reports of these situations in South Asia. Understanding leopard behaviour is my gig and this information has to be disseminated and added to my own work in highly affected areas regarding human-leopard conflict. While there are many common factors over regions (yesterday I commented on a thread that the out of control population of dogs is a huge factor and critical to the issue) there is also the compounding issue that the adaptability of the leopard is meaning behaviour change forced on it through circumstance. While there can be area population patterns showing this change there are also the individual circumstances of certain cats leading to conflict which will often lead to that leopard being catergorized as rogue or man-eater.As I mentioned in my brief post on Facebook yesterday the leopard that killed two children recently in Baitaidi (adding to an alarming death toll) where I have just come from, could well be dead by now. Villagers retaliate in fear and in the tough terrain of the Himalayan middle hills where so much of this conflict is occurring it's extremely difficult to get accurate information. So action has to take place based on what information is available and as I've written many times before, poverty alleviation is vital.
Sometimes humanity needs to be bitten on the ass before there is understanding. Well the leopard is doing that and if we don't adapt we will lose this cat. My own vision of a rehabilitation centre which can provide solutions (treatment, translocation, rewilding with best practice) is still very much part of my focus but I wonder how much mayhem still has to take place before there is a real wake up on this issue. Believe me, leopard conservation is a huge challenge and right this minute I'd rate the future for these incredible cats as in the balance, 50/50...'
