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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