It's 2016 and disappointing news today that four wild rhino are going to captivity...

Serious ‪#‎wildlife‬ issues in every nation. Carry on killing wildlife and cutting down trees and we'll all die anyway. I'm not sure if it's apathy or ignorance anymore, maybe a deadly cocktail with those two main ingredients. I like wildlife. A lot. But this is about the understanding of how vital wildlife is, how much we need wildlife to sustain the planet. And I believe conservation strategy has to consider the ethical treatment of non-human sentient beings, that is wildlife. It's 2016 ... unnecessary captivity, over intrusive science and tourism plus of course the absolute nightmare that is trophy hunting... 2016 and these are major issues. Apathy? Ignorance? Both?  I'll add in one more, the saddest one of all... our loss of connection to nature

I posted this on Facebook today, you can comment there if you like.  It was largely in response to the very disappointing news that Nepal is gifting four wild rhino to China where they will end up in a zoo. The article is at Facebook underneath this post.

We're getting more details.  I blog again tomorrow.  Thanks to those who care.

Writing the cheque without squeezing the trigger...

This is just a quick post as a couple of hours ago I was asked if there were any circumstances I would endorse trophy hunting. The answer is an emphatic NO. Anyone who supports WildTiger in any way needs to know that, this organization will not change its stance on that. There are of course huge orgs who have a different stance, I'll let you use google on that one but I challenge that their policy makers have never looked a wild animal in the eye with regard to their status and right as a sentient being. Redistribution and repopulating are two obvious answers and alternatives to KILLING FOR CASH. Those people who say they are contributing to conservation by trophy hunting need to understand they can write the cheque without squeezing the trigger...

This blog (and other updates) is also at Facebook if you wish to comment.

A place of peace in a world of madness...

It was good to spend some time at Boudhanath today. I took the image with a wide angle lens (10mm) so it doesn't give the grand scale of the stupa but it does show some of the busy reconstruction after the earthquakes. I've had to be in the area several times in the last few months, it's been fascinating to see this important Buddhist site come back to life, a lot of that due to great effort by the community.
We were having a good meeting, enjoying the feeling of being there, when the news of today's suicide bombing in Baghdad came through. It wasn't congruent with our surroundings. I sit here writing while thinking about the madness we are bringing on ourselves, our treatment of each other and of wildlife, animals. The dishonesty, violence and manipulations leading to such divisive thinking in elections, in every day life. As a conservationist I pray for unity, it's the only answer, as a realist all I see is individuals looking out for themselves. I thank the good people in my life who know there is a better way. We have to keep fighting for that ideal... and places of peace, whether it be in the mountains, in the forest, or next to a stupa...

Quick post - Living with leopards, a soul searching situation...

These blogs (and other updates) are at Facebook if you wish to comment.

I've had several private messages as well as some pertinent comments re my post three days ago (Nepal time), A TRAGIC FACE OF HUMAN - LEOPARD CONFLICT. Yeah, it is a complex and soul searching situation.

Thanks to those who care. I'll expand on the situation as time goes by especially regarding the effort we're really trying to encourage to improve things. It's one of my main focuses right now (in what seems a myriad of issues) and strategies including genetic profiling, increasing behaviour knowledge and practical implementations to improve safety are in development, being tested or on board. As I mentioned in a comment this morning all this has to be done with fairness to both sides, that's the only way it can and will work. More soon, cheers Jack.

A tragic face of human - leopard conflict...

These blogs (along with other updates) are at Facebook if you wish to comment.

13 year old Ganga (left in first image, with her twin sister and father) gets home from school at 4.30pm each day. She does not leave the house until she walks to school with her sister and other students just before 10am the following mornings. In the second image you can see a very small boy standing in the door way of the family's humble abode. That was the exact place that Ganga saw her four year brother Bil Bahadur Shrestha snatched by a leopard, the last time he was seen alive...

Ganga is too afraid to leave the house.

I'm not going to go into the details of this event or the many similar ones we are researching in this area, in this blog today. The little boy in the doorway was born a year after Bil Bahadur was killed, giving Ganga and her family someone they watch incredibly closely, with fear tragedy could strike again.  Pragati Shahi interviewed family members with her usual professionalism and care but we both walked away from the scene deeply moved by what we had discovered.

We said goodbye to a mother (3rd image) who gave us a brave smile but who had pain in her eyes... and pain in her heart. She had told us of trauma few can really understand. Her husband, Shyam Shestha, had taken us through that tragic night's events in detail, he was stoic but his eyes too told their own story. Ganga's eye's were truly expressive, they told of a sadness that cut deep into her soul.

We will tell this story in the future, we'll link it with the many others in the area. Words and phrases like maneater, revenge killing, mistaken identity and above all, safety, came up many times. This is a poor family. They had no lighting from electricity at the time of the attack, they don't have a phone now (we will change that soon) and while there was a small cash compensation given there was no psychcological support. There are measures that can be introduced to help families like this. We will see this through.

I have just under six months to go in a three year assignment which really started many years before and will extend many years ahead. It is very much about the leopard now, and our relationship to this misunderstood, persecuted animal that causes a lot of fear and in the context of serious human/wildlife is the major player. As I've mentioned several times before the leopard does not have the rock star status of species like tiger, snow leopard, rhino and elephant, it doesn't live just in protected areas, the leopard lives with us in many places.

That means the leopard lives in close proximity to people like the Shrestha family and it means tragedy can happen anytime. True conservation is fairness to both sides. The leopard is a vital species, a remarkable ecosystem engineer. And little Ganga is a beautiful young girl who has the right to more sparkle in her eyes...

‪#‎Trafficking‬ - HAVING THE COURAGE TO CARE - ‪#‎people‬ ‪#‎wildlife‬ ‪#‎habitat‬...

The links between human trafficking and wildlife trafficking are becoming more and more apparent, they can't be ignored.

Link to article

I feel fortunate there are people in my life who care about these issues and do something about it, whether it be actually engaged in the field or helping out by contributions. Thank you. If the Brexit decision means a global economic crisis the very people in the article above by Pragati will be affected. To those people who voted to LEAVE, yep, well done for short sighted thinking that has ramifications well beyond your shores. I was kept in touch regarding this child trafficking story yesterday and Pragati's last message late last night simply read "because of poverty".

Everything is connected. In the next day or so we're spending time with families who have lost children killed by leopards. Deadly serious conflict. Marginalized people who don't have the resources to live safely in these circumstances are also taken advantage of by wildife traffickers. They are also taken advantage of by human traffickers. Yes, again, it's all connected, it's all linked.

In a few weeks I give my first talk "Living with Leopards" and it touches on many issues quite apart from my own experience of actually living with a leopard in the jungle. I'm attempting to paint the big picture. It's also a fundraiser, the cost of rewilding the three leopards so far, once all the bills are paid, is pretty damn big, another time consuming aspect.

But worth it in every way not the least because it's shown me who does really care and acts, way beyond just saying they care. Thank you for your courage. We need more of it, all these issues need far more than words, they need the courage to act.

Freedom for a leopard representing the cause of freedom and a fair life for us all.

The world went backwards (again) yesterday because of inward thinking. I wish some of those inward thinkers could come live and work here for a while. Maybe they would develop some courage...

Time to fragment? No it's a time to have the courage to unite...

Just a quick post to maybe let off some steam.  When China made the decision a couple of weeks ago to put in measures to reduce meat consumption by fifty percent, a young woman I know wrote to me and said she was proud her country was making this effort.  The last time we had met we had talked about the serious issues around illegal wildlife trade in China.  She told me there was a growing awareness among younger people and we discussed the many recent wildlife part seizures made by authorities in China.  We talked about how there was a long way to go but that there were people in China who wanted to be part of the global thinking on this and many other issues.

We spoke of fairness to all living creatures, about being one planet which must overcome the boundaries and constructs our own species has created, a situation that has caused massive social and environmental degradation.

At dinner last night with a Nepali friend, we spoke, as always, about the very same things.  We always speak of Nepal's incredible potential and that it is frustrating that it is really only social divisions holding back that from being realized.  We spoke of the forces that do want to change this so thus we spoke of hope.

Today's decision in the Brexit vote is a smack in the face for those who want to have unity.  Sure, the EU has problems, many problems.  However the lack of courage by LEAVE supporters to overcome those issues in a way for the greater good beyond its own borders shows a selfishness that can really only be translated as weakness, the inability to tough it out.

There has been a constant theme of racism throughout the debate.  Of course this disease is not limited to the UK, it is a global curse.  There has been comment that this decision is a victory for democracy.  Of course they are right... because democracy has always disadvantaged minority groups when the going gets tough, this is another example.  Anyone who thinks all democratic decisions are the right please stop reading now and try and find a link to an IQ test.

This is a weak decision because it is selfish.  I feel damn sorry for young people right now.  My Chinese friend will be upset because this goes against all the principles she spoke of in our talks and the messages of shock I got from my Nepali friend said it all, basically asking where is their courage?

I post the image of the leopard.  A highly adaptable animal with supreme courage.  The leopard lives a tough life in a world where in its own mind it has no borders.

It does have barriers however, barriers created by us.  And we keep putting up those barriers to make life harder for ourselves.

We've got to keep showing the courage to break down those barriers...

#Fixit