My comment here is in reference to the article published today:
GETTING IT WRONG CAN BE TRAGIC - THE MAKING OF A MANEATER?... Thanks to those who follow "Living with Leopards" - there's also another piece today re the Amur Leopard from Nat Geo - Call of World's Rarest Big Cat Recorded in Wild For First Time.
Re this piece, yeah, translocation, reintroduction, it's a really delicate subject. It's all very well for animal activists yelling out from millions of miles away behind the safety of their laptops but the reality on the ground is a great deal of pressure to get this right, the science is still young. I'm with Vidya on this but I do have fitful sleep nights, just hoping the phone call doesn't come, where reintroduction has gone wrong. I'm working on mobile transit kits that can be erected quickly and the leopard Dipnani situation is helping understand that. Future proofing, ecosystem rebuilding, these are positive motivations but if the homing instincts of an adult cat result in human fatalities then everything goes out the window pretty quickly.
The ultimate answer is of course human population reduction... 2 child policy and then sterilization! Sounds like a futuristic movie I know but with the squeeze for space as we coexist with wild animals I honestly believe we are just hanging on tight for now until population control becomes reality.
Wildlife experts suspect that Chalisgaon leopard could have been 'translocated'
GETTING IT WRONG CAN BE TRAGIC - THE MAKING OF A MANEATER?... Thanks to those who follow "Living with Leopards" - there's also another piece today re the Amur Leopard from Nat Geo - Call of World's Rarest Big Cat Recorded in Wild For First Time.
Re this piece, yeah, translocation, reintroduction, it's a really delicate subject. It's all very well for animal activists yelling out from millions of miles away behind the safety of their laptops but the reality on the ground is a great deal of pressure to get this right, the science is still young. I'm with Vidya on this but I do have fitful sleep nights, just hoping the phone call doesn't come, where reintroduction has gone wrong. I'm working on mobile transit kits that can be erected quickly and the leopard Dipnani situation is helping understand that. Future proofing, ecosystem rebuilding, these are positive motivations but if the homing instincts of an adult cat result in human fatalities then everything goes out the window pretty quickly.
The ultimate answer is of course human population reduction... 2 child policy and then sterilization! Sounds like a futuristic movie I know but with the squeeze for space as we coexist with wild animals I honestly believe we are just hanging on tight for now until population control becomes reality.
