This post is also at Facebook (in two sections along with other updates not on this blog page) if you wish to comment.
As I dig deeper into the leopard skin trade, both legal and illegal, the lines become blurred because yes, under the guise of trophy hunting you can legally shoot a leopard in certain countries, import the "trophy" at which point it attains value. China has always been the whipping boy re illegal trade but considering the amount of skins that go into the US alone, "legally", it's fair to say there is global complicity. The findings are ending up in a document to help get the leopard added to the Protected Species List here, the web of trade links Nepal, where the animal is being poached, it spreads everywhere. I'm not backward in coming forward on this issue and the 10,000 dead leopards reference I've used in recent posts, at the request of a literary agent who has become fascinated in my struggle for this species as well as the global apathy, well, that tells it's own story. I'm unable to get food for the leopard Dipnani today, I pray I can tomorrow, this thing is a battle on many levels. So it's going to be laptop catch up day, replying to overdue messages, my answers will be direct, there's no time any more for it to be any other way for a species under siege...
I'll have a proper project update in a few days but just some quick shout outs. Bernd is pictured here back in Germany, he and his wife Monica have been working tirelessly to get equipment to help mitigate problems in the continual challenge of human-wildlife coexistence. This includes these torches which are being distributed in highly affected areas re elephant and leopard issues. Bernd is putting wildleopard.net stickers on the torches, I'll explain soon how wildleopard.net, an offshoot of WildTiger, is progressing. Also a big thanks to Ian at ProsChoice for his help as we develop LeopardEye, I'm putting a lot of hours into this type of monitoring of wildlife and people in hotspot areas, Ian has kindly provided equipment for testing. And also to Shelly from Australia who has been a fantastic courier of gear here while continuing to do her own work helping this country. Every effort counts, thank you...
