Despite everything I'm an optimist, I know we can improve things on our planet. We have the knowledge, we just need the will. There'd be no point in getting up in the morning to biting insects if I thought otherwise.
The jungle, be it mountain or lowland, has taught me, still teaches me in ways that no person can. You have to have it between your toes to truly understand. The leopard is the jungle and the jungle is the leopard. Re the previous post (on Facebook, the pug mark image) when the trail ran cold after a couple of hours tracking but reappeared again the next day my respect for the big male leopard grew with my head shake and smile, the big cat then reached the leopard transit area and interacted with the leopard Dipnani as shown in the fixed camera image. I thought of all the times I had been outsmarted by the leopard Asa (black and white image), the cleverness and seeming invisibility an attribute evolved over thousands of years to create nature's super predator.
So when every day I receive news of leopard skin seizures my optimism gets hit by sadness. The thing is though I don't only feel sorry for the cats, I feel sorry for all those, the vast, vast majority who do not understand what is happening, who do not feel the power of the leopard. I have done my best to convey the issues and after much soul searching I will continue to do so. I almost decided, nah bugger it, despite all the promises and big talk not enough people are truly listening, I'll just go back to being near invisible, like the leopard, and keep working for this animal the way I do finding true supporters other ways. I know deep in my heart there can be more loyalty towards this remarkable animal because there are already some who are. But then a friend and colleague said no Jack, keep writing when you can, keep doing what you are doing because although your days in the jungle are valuable, people have to know why you do it.
So I guess it's about balance. I thank those who do actually help and understand it's not that difficult, certainly not as hot, humid and mosquito ridden as what we do here. It's just that the leopard needs more loyal supporters because otherwise that invisibility will take on a much more tragic
And appending to this post, those of you who are interested in leopards may have picked up on this documentary if you read the post about Beverly and Dereck Joubert at Living with Leopards (www.facebook.com/livingwithleopards). "Eye of the Leopard" is a brilliant depiction of life for the African leopard. Along with the Indian leopard, the African leopard is the most prevalent but just as they are here, numbers are decreasing. Through the Leopard Task Force I have a colleague researching the trophy hunting of leopards on the African continent, a man made threat like poaching when already life is hard enough for the spotted cat anyway, as this stunning documentary shows. A decade old but still one of the best...
