Leopards of the higher Canopy

Cats from the clouds

Right from the beginning of evolution of Felidae, it is believed that the cats have gradually evolved from a life style that best suits them in the trees. With the ever occurring climate change, arose the grasslands and less-covered forests, when about cats started evolving into the grounds, while still possessing the instinct of climbing. Prehistoric extinct bigcats such as Smilodons and other saber and non-sabertooths, and today's bigcats lions and tigers have become fully or semi-land dwelling ones. While leopards and jaguars still are very much capable of ruling the third dimension of the jungle. There remains another bigcat even more agile in the trees, as well as have also evolved enough to be adaptable in further dimensions of forests. The cat I am describing here actually comes from the clouds, which is why they are also called as Clouded Leopard. Basically, cloud like spotted patterns in their beautiful fur have given them the name, but it has also very much coincided with the interpretation of the cats from high above the clouds.

Very highly arboreal among all Pantherinae cats, clouded leopards genus comprise of two species. The mainland clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa distributed along the mainland south-east asia into as west as himalayan foothills of mid-western Nepal in south asia, while Sundaland clouded leopard Neofelis dairdi are distributed in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in south-east asia. These cats are meduim-sized, although being much closer to Panthera bigcats than to any other Felinae small cats species. Highly believed to be dependent on dense rainforests, they have already gone extinct from Taiwan in last decade. Their habitat is very much fragmented throughout their range. Their main threat being the destruction of their habitat, where the south-east asian regions are facing today's fastest deforestation rate. Besides, due to their wonderful patterns, the demand for their pelt in the south-east asian illegal trade have worsened their status further, making them one of most illegally poached wildcat species in the region. 

Their elusive and very secretive nature have made most scientists almost impossible to study their ecology and behaviour in their natural environment, so most knowledge about the cat comes from studies in captive facilities. Very agile and skilled climber, they are believed to spent most of their time in the canopy regions of forests. Their prey ranges from small mammals to birds and to even some small deer species, monkeys, wild boars etc. So if the forest has a very healthy population of all these animals and less human disturbances, these cats are believed to be found in higher densities. Clouded leopards can hunt animals in the trees, stalking, chasing, as well as jumping through the trees. Their hind ankle joint can rotate horizontally allowing them to use their hind paws to grab the branches while descending or hanging upside down. They are the only bigcats which can descend headfirst efficiently like a squirrel, and move through fragile branches of lianas in the canopy of the forests hanging upside down as efficiently as monkeys. Like real leopards, they carry their prey high up in the tree to feed upon in order to avoid any disturbances from other competitors of the forests.

Very rarely able to see one in the wild, there is not a single documentary of the bigcat filmed in the real wild settings. A documentary Return of the clouded leopards attempts to document a rewilding measure of two orphaned clouded leopard cubs in a north-eastern part of India near Bhutanese border. My opinion on the sightings of the cat is somewhat in similar interpretations like that of the ghost cat from the mountains, the snow leopards. Snow leopards are regarded very elusive and majestic ones, one should be really lucky to see one in the wild. Almost same is for clouded leopards, maybe very few people have got the chance to see one in the wild. Here I report some sighting footages posted on youtube by such lucky person, Richard Howard. And I really praise them for sharing the rarest footage with us. The footage as mentioned in the description is captured in the forests of Borneo, so its the Sundaland clouded leopard species. The leopard is seen moving through branches high up in the tree, and also possibly carrying a monkey kill on its powerful jaws as it jumps from the branches to branches. It is in fact a very wonderful footage even if not in a very good quality, but very much worth it. 

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THE LAST REMAINING CLOUDED LEOPARDS

Clouded Leopards that are possibly the last ones of the century

BACKGROUND

A very distinct but yet closely related to Panthera bigcats than to other small wildcats, clouded leopards Neofelis spp. are the smallest bigcats that come under the Pantherinae sub-clades of Cats. There are very less information available of the bigcat in their natural habitat, since these are among the most secretive and elusive ones of all the cats. Most of the information that experts know about this cat come from their study and observation on captive ones. They are believed to be highly adaptable in canopy regions of dense forests, their features such as very long tail, wide paws, short limbs make them very perfect predators on trees. Another special character which is also reserved to another cat species, Margay Leopardus wiedii, is that their hind leg ankle joints can actually rotate so that they can grip the branches of trees while descending as similarly as how a squirrels would do. This feature make them able to climb down trees head-first making them the only Pantherinae bigcats that can do such arboreal acrobatics, although common leopards are too a highly able climber. Marbled cats Pardofelis marmorata has also recently been observed to show this behaviour, this just shows how less we know about these cats and they have already become rare by the time we know these things. Clouded leopards in captivity are known to hang upside down the branch, also walk through the branch hanging upside down, and actively jump along the branches.

Clouded leopard (sketch drawn by me)
The texts in the background are exam questions from one of my courses, I later realized that they actually relates to the problems that these bigcats are facing in some direct/indirect way, so I didn't crop them out.

That was a brief and quite a few valuable information about this elusive bigcat. But where are these elusive cats living? Their range is mostly concentrated in the South-east regions of mainland Asia as well as Sumatra and Borneo islands, and their distribution extends towards Southern Asia also. Throughout their range, they are patchily distributed most probably due to their habitat loss. In the southern asia, countries like Nepal, North-east India, Bhutan, Myanmar has suitable habitats for clouded leopards. While in the south-east asia, countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, etc. has some of the last populations of clouded leopards. Until last decade, it was believed to comprise of a single species, however researches conducted based on morphological as well as molecular data have found out that they are actually two species. The mainland clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa that are distributed along the mainland Asia, both south and south-east. And the islands of Sumatra and Borneo has a distinct species, also known as Sundaland clouded leopard Neofelis diardi. Although estimated to be less than 10,000 globally living clouded leopard population in the wild, it is completely based on estimation which can be much more lesser in the actual figure or close to it but probably not more than that. With fragmented habitat, no single populations are believed to comprise of more than 1000 individuals, this too being an estimation and the real figure can be much more lesser based on the disturbances present in the habitat regions. 

THREATS AND SITUATION

The region where they are thought to be present in highest densities are going through the highest rate of deforestation today. Due to commercial use of the rainforest in south-east asia for production of palm oil for example, their habitat is in danger, and therefore so is the cat. With their one of most beautiful spot patterns, they are becoming the target of poachers mainly for their demand of pelts,  as well as bones and other body parts used in traditional chinese medicines (TCM). Also, due to lack of healthy numbers of suitable wild prey, these cats get forced to enter human settlements in search of food, such as poultry, dogs, pigs, goats, etc. and thus becomes the victim of retaliation, although being just twice as large as domestic cats, they are not that much of a threat to human life. In order to save and better understand the behaviour of this elusive species, there has been efforts of captive breeding programs, which has proven to be quite challenging unlike the case of other bigcats. Most often, the males have been observed to turn out very aggressive during mating, leading to life-threatening injuries to females and sometimes even killing their mate. Successful breeding chances are observed to be high only when the pairs are introduced from their earlier years when they are still young. Due to such challenging issues in breeding, the clouded leopards are also among the lowest numbers in captivity of all bigcats. To some extent, these project initiatives may help save the species, possibly even taking the measure to rewild the captive cats back into a viable habitat one day. But still, a real conservation would always be an in-situ directed conservation i.e. conserving the clouded leopards in their natural and wild habitat. They have lost most of their habitats in the last century as any other large carnivores especially bigcats, conserving their last remaining habitats is what we should focus mainly on right now. 

STUDIES REVIEW

Throughout their ranges, clouded leopards have been very poorly studied. Most of the research focuses on the south-east asia regions of their range, but there is lack of enough data from the south asia regions. Also, some dedicated organization focuses on their fund granting towards the south-east asia based projects probably due to lack of enough available funds and very low density of the clouded leopards in south asia regions or maybe just that we know very few about their actual distribution in the south asia regions. I myself being from south asia region, Nepal, is more concerned about their conservation needs in this region too. Clouded leopards are an interesting species of wildcat that are facing a risk of getting extinct in the near future as same as any tigers today. People are unaware of their endangered status as well as the strict and improving protection against tiger body parts trade is shifting the demands of TCM towards other wildcats such as lions, leopards and clouded leopards. Just recently, a review paper published reported about seizures of wildcat body parts during 1991-2014 and it was found that the trade in the parts from clouded leopards were the most common ones among asian species of wildcats. The review was based on illegal trades from Myanmar-China and Myanmar-Thailand border regions.

THREATS IN NEPAL

Nepal has been a hub for wildlife traders en route to Tibet and China through India due to open Indo-Nepal borders. A recent changes in the law and order has improved and solved these issues to some extent, where Nepal has accomplished a zero poaching of tigers, elephants and rhinos for 3 years, with rhinos being an exception in which one or two have been poached during this time. Very less is known about any other wildcats trade, such as common leopards, clouded leopards, leopard cats, marbled cats, and so on. A study in the assessment of clouded leopards ecology conducted in a part of mountainous region of mid-eastern Nepal did not find out any clues of a living clouded leopards there, but two pelts of clouded leopards were discovered in the locality near the research area. This has proven two things, one that there are clouded leopards living in the region, another that how worst is the situation of their conservation in the region. The people are involved in such illegal activities, and not much is being done from the national or governmental level for the conservation of these endangered bigcats. Poaching being the most problematic threats for their survival, habitat destruction is also no less of a serious problems that these cats are facing today. 

DISTRIBUTION IN NEPAL

The geography of Nepal possess a wide diversity from the highest Himalayan mountains in the northern belts, then mid-hilly mountains of Sivalik and Mahabharata ranges, and the plains of Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in the southern lines. Clouded leopards have been found or believed to exist along all three major landscapes, but their densities are found mostly concentrated along the himalayan foothills and mid-hilly (HFMH) ranges. A recent camera trap study focused on tigers in a TAL regions have captured images of 3 individual clouded leopards making it the first strong documented records of clouded leopards from TAL region specifically in Chitwan National Park (CNP), although previous reports were been made about their presence there but quite not that strongly reported. Elsewhere in the HFMH regions, clouded leopards existence is documented in few regions strongly through camera traps data such as Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) and Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP), which lies towards mid-western and central regions of Nepal respectively. Anecdotal informations regarding their presence in eastern as well as some far-western regions are also available, and thus these needs validation through improved and strong research evidences as well as their status assessment is highly needed to ensure their proper conservation measure. Nepal has green hilly montane forests along the foothills of Himalayas which has been a suitable habitat for many endangered species, making it a rich biodiversity hotspot region. When we view the regions of protected areas over the distribution ranges of clouded leopards, there are lots of fragments clearly seen. The law and order of Nepal is mostly focused within the protected areas, which means that the situation of these cats outside of protected areas are even much worse and very very less known.

Note: Pale regions are the distribution map shown by IUCN, Darker regions are the protected areas in the regions.
The overlaps are highlighted with even darker and dotted borders, more details are mentioned in the warning section in the image.

SITUATION IN NEPAL

The recent records from CNP about the existence of Clouded leopards have increased the need for their behaviour pattern and status analysis since the TAL regions of Nepal also supports dwindling numbers of tigers which has received much of attention from protection point of view. This ensures to some extent that the clouded leopards in CNP are much more protected than other places. Common leopards Panthera pardus are distributed throughout all major geographical regions of Nepal, although its not going to be long that they would be as common as what their common name suggests, since common leopards are the most misunderstood among the bigcats, and their adaptable characteristics have made them come in conflicts with people, with even the situation getting worst in the capital city of Nepal. Common leopards are facing the conflict situations mostly because of habitat fragmentation, destruction and encroachment. It is known that the clouded leopards and common leopards co-exist along the HFMH regions, but as is the case of common leopards coming into conflicts with humans, the clouded leopards status is worsening because these cats are very much secretive and the habitat loss is causing them a serious risk of getting rarer and rarer, and thus also less likely comes into conflict with humans, although there have been some cases of conflicts. However, clouded leopards wouldn't be of a huge threat to the human life as that of common leopards, although common leopards also rarely attack humans, yet they are just misunderstood among the bigcats. Due to the successful conservation measures and seriously dedicated private, governmental and national, international level conservation parties for tigers and snow leopards, the importance about the conservation needs of clouded leopards and common leopards are hugely being neglected or at least not much given an attention towards. At least the clouded leopards have the status of protected species in Nepal, but common leopards case is even much worse which is not yet considered a protected species, although poaching and hunting is completely checked and regarded illegal. There is so much in common among these two neglected bigcats, that either of their thorough studies and research would in some extent help protect both of the magnificent cats. The conservation of both of these two bigcats could go hand in hand if there ever comes a dedicated bodies and along with them, their supporters as funds providers. However, due to unavailability of enough funds and lack of attention and interests from the national and international level, few of such dedicated organizations are not being able to take their efforts to higher levels. 

Taking all these things into consideration, a conclusion could be briefly prepared that the requirements about the conservation measures of clouded leopards are highly needed, not to mention the situation of common leopards as important as cloudies. I have decided to dedicate the rest of my life, believing that I would live for another 40 years or so and there will be at least 4 or 5 generations of these bigcats up until then, studying and trying to better conserve and protect these wonderful bigcats. If there ever comes an opportunity for achievements during this endeavor, I would want to make it my life goal focusing on the conservation of these two wonderful distantly related so-commonly called leopards, or I would rather say the leopards of Asia along with snow leopards. 

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How are Leopards and Clouded leopards in Nepal?

Problem in wildlife conservation in Nepal - case of Leopard conflicts

Nepal has rich biodiversity, which have resulted in the continuous attention of conservation initiatives. My concern again is on big cats that have been prowling the habitat located across different topographical regions of Nepal. The most celebrated, Snow leopards, exists in the northern belt of Himalayan mountainous regions, they have received much of attentions by different organizations dedicated to the species conservation such as Snow Leopard Conservancy, Snow Leopard Trust and other conservation organizations such as well know WWF. Similarly, in the southern plains, Tigers and leopards co-exist. Today’s plight in the challenges the world is facing in the Tiger conservation, they have too received huge supports by different national level and global level programs and conservation measures. Nepal has celebrated 3 years of Zero-poaching in case of Tigers since 2011, and a positive trend in the population results are coming out as of the results. Elsewhere in the mid-hilly and lower mountainous belts, the dominating cats are Leopards. Leopards being the most prosecuted of all big cats worldwide, the situation is not so different here in Nepal too.
 

Leopards are known as the most adaptable of all big cats, they have been co-existing along with Lions and Tigers since millions of years, and today they are adapting to survive even in the urban areas. Such reports have been coming up in media from parts of India, Africa too and in Nepal too. The problem that Tigers faced due to increasing encroachment of their habitat in the last century which resulted in the extermination extinction of at least 3 tiger subspecies, and one subspecies not recorded in the wild for more than 10 years, and present remaining tigers in high risk of getting extinct have also hugely affected most of other wild faunas. Leopards too are moving into human settlements due to habitat depletion and prey base decline. And when a wild cat predator comes into the human domain, conflict does start to occur, in either an animal attacking people or people attacking an animal. This has resulted in the misunderstanding among people that leopards are their prime enemy and that they should not tolerate their presence.

In Nepal, tigers and snow leopards are fully protected species declared by Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), Government of Nepal. However, common leopards thought to be as common as they are called or for some other reasons, have not got the same protection as their former two popular cousins. It is illegal to kill or poach any leopards within the protected areas, which indirectly is pointing out that they are not a protected species outside of protected areas. Basically, what problems this misleading information creates is that people would think that they aren't endangered species, so they are not strictly protected as tigers and snow leopards. We don’t know when the common leopards become uncommon or have they already started becoming so? But we do know that an attention has not been given properly to this beautiful spotted cat. Leopards are one of most conflict-cases cats in Nepal, one of the reasons being already mentioned, highly adaptable. People do fear a predator which can harm them, kill their cattles, pets, children etc. and bring nightmares among locals. So most conflict situations results in the prosecution of the big cat. The government has allocated compensation to the casualties, lost cattle, but for some reason, the prosecution problem is still not getting resolved. Is it because the government’s declarations being not implemented real in practice or is there some other issues blocking this solution? Well, there could be many reasons, but however, one main thing that’s lacking the most is the awareness.

Awareness is what wildlife conservation has to be really about. When conservation goes hand in hand with the local people, it has the highest chances of being successful. Similarly, the case with leopards and most of other animals conflict cases, it’s the awareness. When people are made aware about the importance of wildlife into the ecosystem of earth, they realize what is best to do. A term used in conservation biology called ‘key-stone species’ applies most often to top-carnivores, and hence the big cats are the protector of our ecosystem. If we protect them, we are protecting our environment where we need to survive healthily. Leopards as being the top-predators in the mid-hilly regions need not fear of tigers as in southern Terai regions. But why are they still venturing into our settlements? Most probably, a predator would search for its food in order to survive. The prey-base in their territories are declining due to ever increasing human disturbances such as cattle grazing, deforestation, dependent on forests as source of firewood, and nevertheless the greed nature of involving into the business of poaching of wild animals. The place that we are calling as ours actually belonged to them just up to maybe not-too-distant past. They have already lost huge areas of their historical ranges, and now they are facing the shortage of their prey animals. So, they are forced to enter our settlements which give rises to conflict. One of very depressing situations is in Kathmandu, the capital city itself. Increasing immigration have resulted in faster urbanization rate, and the habitat of wildlife fragmented, depleted, encroached as a result. Not just this, though being the most developed regions of the country in terms of infrastructure, opportunities, good-quality educational institutions, the condition of awareness is no better than any other rural areas where people are deprived of these developmental facilities. When a leopard comes into the vicinity, people go after it crazily just as a crazy bunch of illiterates. The mistake is not from the people here, but there seems to be the huge lack in proper awareness. And another sad thing is that these issues are highlighted mostly only when the conflict itself occurs, they don’t remain in the concern of any concerned authorities or bodies to continuously spread the awareness for if any other conflicts ever arises in the future.

The basic science, the basic animal behaviors, the basic animal habits which could be educated very simply in a series of awareness programs to public and mostly school children are lacking. Leopards are solitary cats. Only females who has cubs would remain with them for about a year or so until their cubs become able to fend for themselves, and after which mothers would drive them off. They have very strict boundaries of their territories, so young big cats curiously venture into human domains seeing the chances of easy prey such as stray dogs, cats, chickens, etc. These cats maybe very nervous and afraid of humans, they might not incur any harm or threats to our lives and they are very good at being invisible. Yet still when people do realize its presence, and the worst thing when they do see it, most likely the young cat is going to be chased basically to be killed. Although, sometimes the animals are captured safely, but they end up getting to the zoo. Well, this isn't a solution. A proper attention has not come here even into the minds of those wildlife authorities who should understand about the nature of these cats and take some initiatives to arrange a relocation of such wandering young cats. A leopard that was killed by police after it attacked a person, basically because it got threatened by mass of people running and shouting after it just early this year in Kapan area looked very young. He/she really seemed to be a young innocent cat just trying to start its new life as described above, and then it just couldn't even make it. People’s safety was the first priority, but why was there the lack of proper equipment to tranquilize it, and why were people making lots of noise which would make the cat very nervous? For the former, it could be a lack of budget or negligence, but for the latter, it’s a complete lack of awareness. Those educated people living in the capital city of the country are showing their lack of common sense, just let alone the similar scenarios in the rest of parts of Nepal.

Another possibility of leopard venturing into our settlements could be that the leopard was old aged. Leopards defend their territories from any other leopards. Males will have larger area compared to females, often overlapping with couple of females, and the size of their territory depends mostly on the availability of the prey-base in the region. Conflict due to territories also occur among them, this has to occur, its nature. Young and strong enough to take over, a new leopards may drive off an older one most often inflicting serious injuries on them. These fights are often very vicious, even resulting in death sometimes. The loosing and injured leopard can’t hunt efficiently, and thus they need to go for some easier prey in order to survive. These cats in their search for easier prey might finally end up in our settlements where they get the chances of catching domestic animals. Conflicts will come sooner or later, though weak and injured, they could be still deadly to any humans who bare handedly tries to fight it. The unfortunate cats are either prosecuted, shot or if lucky taken safely to the zoo.

Yet there could be many other possibilities why leopards venture out into our settlements, however we should also not forget that the base reasons for all these causes are our improper acts. A proper awareness is hugely required to conserve these magnificent creature earth has ever given rise to. The issue doesn’t just relate to the common leopards which doesn’t have the enough protection, but to another very close relative of Panthera cats, the clouded leopards. They are one of the most cryptic species of cat. Due to fragmentation of dense forests, these cats are facing danger of getting extinct. And unlike leopards, clouded leopards are the protected species and considered endangered in Nepal and vulnerable worldwide, they are distributed in south and south-east Asia. Very few reports of their venturing into human settlements comes up in the news, but there are no any strong data on how many of them are there. Or are they just already extinct or close to extinction? Have we totally neglected a most endangered species while focusing on tigers and snow leopards? There could be very few of them, no one knows how many, and reports of their pelt and body parts seizure coming up in the media makes us worry about the species even more. People know very less about these clouded leopards which are locally called Dhwanse chituwa, lesser than how much people know of common leopards. Nepal is the last of its range in the western most area, and there is very few anecdotal data and some photographic evidences of its occurrence in some remote protected areas, no idea if they are even present in unprotected areas of the country. Attention to every precious species that are in grave danger of extinction should be prioritized, today clouded leopards need as enough attention as common leopards. And these two cats co-exist in the mid-hilly regions of Nepal. Being the smallest big cat, they should receive equal conservation attention as the biggest big cat, the tigers.

Cats are hyper carnivorous among the Carnivora order. They stalk, ambush, pounce their preys with their claws which retract and protract in will, and the sharp canines that serves in the killing throat-bite. They predate on the weakest animal, eliminating weaker genes, controls the population of herbivores, thus giving green plants the time to sprout. Overall, helps in maintaining the balance in ecosystem in landscape level. These key-stone species should be protected and conserved and never harmed, if we are to breathe a clean air in a clean environment made possible by preserving the green forests where these wildcats live and survive. Proper education, awareness, attention should be prioritized to secure their future in order to secure our own future. Conserve the wildlife of the planet, we have only one of it. Jai Bagh !

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Human vs. Wild Tiger Conflicts

Big Cats Survival ?

All cats are similar in that they are solitary (few exceptions), long-distance male dispersing instinct to ensure flow of genes and avoidance of inbreeding, territorial dimorphism in two sexes (males have relatively larger territory and often overlaps with couple of females). New males go out to seek territory of their own where there are plenty of prey to feed on, minimum reason to come into conflicts with any other predators, specifically their most feared threat, Humans. Since they are solitary and hunt all by themselves for themselves, except during when females are rearing cubs/kittens until they can fend for themselves. Due to this main reason, any conflicts with other predators can potentially inflict deep wounds that would make them unable to hunt efficiently and can even lead to hunger-driven weakness and finally death if really unlucky. So, most cats have an invisible boundaries of their own mediated by their scent spraying nature and the function played by olfactory system in respecting these boundaries of each individuals. Cats try to avoid any territorial dispute as far as possible just by communicating with these invisibly coded messages on different structures of nature in their domain. Only will the fight occur when challenger wants to take over the local ruler to claim his own territory there or if a wanderer is too hesitant enough to ignore the rules. These sort of finalizing battles can even result in death of a weaker one, either the local (if he is weak) or sometimes the challenger (if he is too overconfident and has misanalysed).

In the same way, big cats also would not want to come in conflict with any humans as they cannot afford any injury or threats to their life. Rare cases when the big-cat is too old and/or injured to be able to kill their natural prey, will go for easier prey like us humans. But the concern in today’s context is that we are invading into their territory, encroaching their domain, and competing against them for exotic wild meats and the trade thereof. People are most often doing this because they have no alternative solutions to this lifestyle. Life in villages are tough, not as simple as we people from urban city think of. They are deprived of many basic needs and resources, so basically their dependence in the forest is very obvious. But when people break the law of nature either due to their compulsion or greed desire, things will gradually move towards the most feared worst-case-scenario one day. And victims will be we ourselves as well as the big cats. These cats need to survive as well, and in order to do so, they also need to hunt and eat whenever and whatever they can. Usually, the cats tend to prefer among a range of wild native prey species, but are also opportunistic and will try attempting on any curious lost invaders or wanderers (humans). Increasing human population and thus anthropogenic pressures such as cattle grazing disturbs the natural ground and brings imbalance in the ecosystem. Due to the vegetation exploitation, the natural prey animals of the big cats start getting rarer which in turn will drive the cats into human-domains to fulfil their hunger. Cattles are quite easier to stalk than their wild preys as these domesticated ones lack most of their natural instinct to be relatively vigilant for any sign of danger. While on the other hand, poor people of the villages cannot afford to lose his animal to any big cat in the vicinity. Their daily basic needs are fulfilled by their domestic cattle, and these animals are like the income source of each family. Losing one animal could mean a huge loss of the basic salary required to feed their family for a whole year or even more. In either way or so, cases of conflict arises bringing threats to the life and existence of both we humans and the big cats.

Conflicts are mostly common in the places where the boundary of these two yet differently bound apex predators, humans and big cats, meet. As young cats wanders off from their mother’s territory to seek a territory of his/her own, they often have to come across human society because the forest is all pack and there’s no place for new younger cats and fighting with older and more stronger cats is no way possible. Also, due to prey base depletion, the cats are forced to prowl in human dominated grounds for hunting. Yet another situation, when an old or weaker cats get kicked out of their territory by younger and stronger ones, they are often inflicted with injuries that weakens their hunting ability to even more extent. This in turn will drive such old cats into the human domains where they can hunt easier preys and spent their last days of life. Either way, humans venturing into the forest of the big cats or the cats prowling into the locality of people, will bring conflict between each other. And what’s interesting and more troublesome issue is that both these situations are not surprisingly human-driven ones.

Baagh aayo, Chituwa aayo, maanche maaryo! The legend of Man-eating tigers and leopards start here. This is another most harsh condition of human driven conflicts and are very much fatal situation of big cats terrorism that gets inflicted as a nightmare into the minds of every people and children. Naturally, as always have, people fear big cats. Obviously, an animal equipped with four sets of 3-inch canines and razor-sharp claws and to add to this fear, the heavily bulky muscular strong body structure would bring a daredevil into anyone’s imagination who happen to have come face-to-face with the beast. We humans with our bare hand will be just no match for this incredibly armored killing machine. The one and only option left for this problem will be ordered from the decision making authorities now, and that’s to hunt down the man-eater. A very sad ending to the life of a most precious animal that has ever walked on earth will come for basically none of their mistake. Big cats will finally lose this battle of life, definitely we cannot call this a survival of the fittest or the competition for the existence. We humans have totally or at least at some proportions taken the nature in our hand and overruled the nature’s way. To all animal lovers, conservationists, big cats crazes, this is a very sad part of this very cruel human world. Big cats getting driven to extinction in front of our own eyes despite all the efforts to protect and conserve and not harm them. The legacy of once strong and top-of-the-food-chain apex predator has become just the lines of a history book. May god embrace this wonderful being of great courage and an influential being to many people and different walks of life with all the treasures of life they once owned. Let them flourish even into a non-worldly heaven-like place where there are no human-like creatures to torture them to the extent of completely wiping them out.

Actually, the situation outlined in the last parts of previous paragraph has not yet come but has highest chances of occurring if we do not realize it now. Are we really going to tell our children that there used to be this majestic tigers and leopards in the forests and mountains? Definitely not, big cats are definitely not going to go extinct any time sooner or later. I am not going to let this happen, no one is. We are going to have to protect them against all odds. People like me as well as people not like me are going to protect them, and there will come the new generations of young fresh minds who would get themselves involved in the conservation either directly or indirectly. And hence the need of awareness comes into play in this stage. More awareness means influencing more people to get involved in protecting the big cats and thus the long term sustainability of our ecosystem. Seeing people to understand the importance of these keystone species and live in harmony with them to ensure their long-term existence and our healthy life style in a healthy environment is a dream of every people fighting for the conservation of nature and its charismatic creations. Jai Bagh !

Big cats – small cats, every cats are an important indicator of the health of an ecosystem that they rule upon. They are strictly carnivorous and hunts down weakest animals, thus wipes out weaker genes from the gene pool, ensuring the evolution to continue. A domestic cat’s hunting skill is as good as of any tiger’s. The borne predators with the heart of a hunter will and always do what its made for. The fate of our ecosystem is totally dependent on these creatures. We need them as equally as they need us. Our efforts in saving them would certainly help them sustain their existence for long term future. Conservation of tigers, leopards, clouded leopards, snow leopards and all other small as well as big cats is today’s high priority for ensuring the conservation of not just the cats but also bears, wolves, dogs, ungulates, reptiles, amphibians, insects and all other classes of living beings. As a whole we will be conserving our ecosystem, our nature.

Tigers are our treasure of Terai Arc Landscape. Snow leopards are the legends of the Himalayas. Leopards and Clouded leopards be made the ambassadors of the Shivalik hills and the Mahabharat ranges. Nepal has very rich biodiversity and suitable habitats, lets conserve the species to conserve the nature or do either way round.

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Humans or Leopards in Kathmandu

Humans or leopards?

Once upon a time, it was all green and dense covered forests when great apes and big cats were living together competing with each other, hunting for their own survival and basically both were evolving. Evolution brings many changes, then humans evolved in the same way many new big-cats species evolved alongside. We have a very deep eco-relationship among each other since millions of years of struggle.

That was about  the very beginning of human evolution era. Things have changed quite a lot as of now. We are the most superior beings of the planet now. And we have moved to more sophisticated world of concrete and all non-living materialistic parts, our old friend are still roaming those green jungles. But they are also getting more and more successful in leading their generations to evolve as the time passes. Now that we do not have a common thing about our place and way of life, the relation we had previously have been broken sadly.

The case is about our very own heart of nation, Kathmandu. From the past and during these recent years, we have been hearing about rampage of big-cats in the news and media quite often. The balance seems to have really got broken between us. Yes, we have destroyed most of their habitats for our own refuge. And with the increasing population in Kathmandu, there aren't much green regions here than there was just a decade ago. Leopards are moving into human settlements, which was actually theirs before we came here. Kathmandu is improving in its materialistic infrastructure gradually and with this its paying the price for the evergreen forests.

It was a small general background which is happening in almost all parts of the world. And with it, we are hearing the human-wildlife conflict cases every day or so. People have become conscious about it and they have been developing a proper solution which are friendly for both the historic friends. Again coming back to Kathmandu or I should rather mention Nepal in general, we have a habit of implementing any measures quite lately. In most of the cases, usually the leopards get killed by angry local people or police mainly because it was causing human injuries and sometimes death. Leopards are solitary and silent predator, and they usually do not go after their prey, rather they keep waiting until the prey comes to their close proximity and ambushes it when the time is right. I have a thought, didn't we move in here whereas they were here from before? It was their place before it was ours. Anyways, to a leopard, humans aren't a potential prey. They come for our other animal friends such as dogs, cattle, poultry etc. It is said that leopards try their best to avoid humans as much as they can. Lets us also try our best to avoid them as much as we can. Let us not take over their territories and claim it ours. They had plenty of prey items in their natural habitat, but when we are destroying their homes, their natural prey starts to deplete. Hence in the fight for the survival for existence, it drives them to our settlement which is the reason why the conflicts start rising and we are very clearly aware of it.

Having to hear leopard sighting or attacking cases often times in the local and international media, I think the time has come for us to stand up to get to the solutions. I am not saying of trying to find a solution, we already have them, we just need to implement them which is the most challenging part in our country. The implementation of researches and policies being made be done as a serious issue without any delay. The leopards are getting endangered very soon, and if we want to ensure this incredible beast to roam this planet century later, then we have to act now. Contributing to this cause from every corner have become necessary. We are called loyal beings, let's play our role of loyalness and show to the world that we can make change, a success story. Wouldn't you want to hear something that says 'A success story of Nepal in their fight to conserve nature and its sentient beings'. And in the same run, wouldn't you want to make yourself safe and make our old friends' future secure too? There are many mitigation measures that could be implemented for the betterment of both us and leopards. I don't have to mention any of those, because I think there are already so many good people and organizations and institutions doing such awareness programs. What I would like to point is we 'youth' are the hope of tomorrow, and we have the power of bringing change. Let us play our role in this fight from every corner and every possible way we can. Let us join our hands together for making a better place to live for us and our historic wild friend. Lastly, to the Government of Nepal, I want to request to please provide enough funds from your account to the concerned wildlife authorities to buy proper equipments and gears required while dealing with a wild animal and arrange a better training for the concerned personnel who are directly risking their lives in order to capture the animal safely, rather than spending the money for your personal visit to abroad countries for nothing. It's not a joke when you are trying to capture an animal that bites you back and tears your skin apart. Get serious sooner before it's too late! Let's try to improve this bond we had from very long time ago.