Predators in the city

Predators in the city

Kathmandu valley is surrounded by hills and jungles that endure rich biodiversity and wildlife habitat. The forest-cover are mostly of deciduous with some pine forests on some southern facing hilly terrains. The wildlife of these forests are declining due to expansion and encroachment activities of the city, and thus gradual degradation of the natural habitat. One such predator prowl these forest which is adapting to their best among all others in the human-dominated landscape. This silent predator sneaks around when the city is asleep, taking away any animals that stray around in the city.

An inhabitant of the city happened to have his pet lost one night. Some furs trapped in the house’s fence were seen later, that was used for genetic test. The test revealed the fur to be highly related to Panthera pardus. Leopards prowl these sub-urbs of Kathmandu valley. Due to the overexploitation of wildlife habitat, the wild prey base on which these felines survive have declined substantially. On the other hand, domestic animals such as dogs, cattle etc. without any responsible human owner are straying around in the city and they are increasing which is driving the big cats of the forest towards the city. Often times, these instances are resulting in the human leopard conflict in recent years more frequently. More and more reports of lost pets are coming up in social medias these days from various places around the valley, yet people are unaware of the actual convict.

The leopards are the largest predator on the hilly terrains of Nepal, within where the capital city Kathmandu also lies. In recent years, the cases of human and leopard conflict situation are occurring very often in different parts of the Kathmandu valley encompassing three districts: Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Due to urbanization and developmental activities, the expanding city is pushing the sub-urbs into the edges of the natural habitat. On the northern and north-western edges of the valley, there lies a protected Shivapuri-Nagarjun National Park. The southern edge is covered by pristine Godavari/Phulchoki Mountain Forest. While most of the southern and western ridge is covered by very steep and dense montane forests of Chandragiri range. A small parts of eastern ridge are spread over the hills of Nagarkot, Changunarayan and Sankhu. The main city is at least ~15km inside from the circumference of the hill ranges around the valley. But the urbanization is rapidly spreading beyond the sub-urbs of the valley, and thus threatening the natural habitats that surround the cities. As a result, wildlife that thrives in those habitat is having to pay the price.

There have been very poor assessment study on the density of different wildlife surviving in these forests. And the conflict cases are regularly being occurring. On hiking trips into some of these forests almost always lead to the encounters of numerous carnivore scats, potentially also of leopards. But it is really not studied that what these leopards have been feeding on, and moreover how many leopards are estimated to be there, as well as for what is the current carrying capacity of these degrading forests. The leopards are believed to come into the settlements mainly in search of potential prey. This lets us think that the natural prey animals of these big cats have declined in the forests, which is why these feline predator are now on the look for a new urban preys to thrive in this disturbed environment. Leopards are known to adapt very well in very disturbed terrains, and is also the main reason why these cats are among the most conflict wild animals.

In order for placing a proper mitigation measures, a proper and serious scientific study is highly required, while also not forgetting that the implementation of these strategies are also needed to generate the result. The movement and behavior of these predators need to be closely monitored using technologies that allow us to do so. There needs to be satisfactory level of awareness activities among the city dwellers about the conflict mitigating solutions. The concerned stakeholders need to maintain their active profile and support for carrying out these important activities in order to assure its implementation success. The rapid response team has to be localized in more than one place so that nothing become regretful just because of time difference.

When everything is in place, it is still yet not certain that the things will work out as planned. We can imagine how it could get when nothing is in place and unplanned. Saving leopards will save many other walks of wildlife that are thriving in those forests. Preserving the wilderness and letting them be where they have always belonged is going to help our generations itself in the long run. Just getting to know that these nature’s gift are roaming around in their natural habitat makes everyone feel overwhelmed, and hence we all should play our part in conserving the beauty that is ever eternal. The nature should be left to be what it is always meant to be and never should be taken for granted if we are to survive under its warm cover and not under her dark influence that she is capable of if ever gone against her.

CHITUWA !!!

Nagarjun hill forest on 20Feb2015

Early in the morning, me and my dad left off in public vehicles to Balaju bypass where we would meet my cousin brother Akhilesh Manandhar. My dad has always been the source of inspiration to me for making me walk, walk and walk. Hence, accompanied by him and brother, we went for hiking into the Nagarjun forest sector of the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park. The Shivapuri and Nagarjun sectors of the National Park are not physically connected due to villages and a highway that runs through these patches, and moreover the Nagarjun forest was made part of the National Park later only much recently. There after we reached the main entrance gate, and paid the entrance fee of Rs. 56.5 each, we ascended for hiking through the trail. As soon as we enter the forest or in fact from the vicinity of the park itself, the sounds of the forests makes us feel so live and charming and brings adrenaline into our blood for the exciting hike.

Just in a short while, we were met after by a local man, who sells candles up in the monastery. He told us about rhododendron high up in the hills, and to hide them in your bags so that the army wouldn't find out about. We asked him along about any leopard sightings he has had, he was fast, he said yes he has had encounter quite often, but the big cat either runs or goes his own way. Being a regular person, he shortly paced and outran us. We kept on our own speed. As my brother and dad were climbing the stone-stairs paved along the trail, I was constantly trying to explore any signs of wildlife along the path we took upon. Shortly after, we thought of taking a shortcut way from outside the trail, as there we saw a small unused path aside of the main trail. Thinking that it would meet with the main trail later in the way, we went through it. It was quite steep-path, a natural path that would normally serve as a highly for any local wildlife specially mammals. As we went forward, we soon discovered that its taking us to a different direction from the main trail and we would have to cut through into the forests in order to meet to the main trail again. There was no point of returning as we had traveled long way, then as we were trying to find a way out, there I noticed some feathers lying on the ground. As I inspected, it seemed it was of a whole bird that must have been the prey of some animal. The feathers were all over lying concentrated in one region mostly, I felt it was a good sign of a presence of a mammalian predator. The color of the feather was dark black to blueish black, looked kind of shiny. I thought for a second, it should be a clouded leopard's kill. That was my mind's first thought as it is so much enthusiastic about clouded leopards. But most probably, it could be from other mammalian predators such as leopard cats, civets, martens, jackals, jungle cats, and who knows could also be that of a leopards. Anyways that was a nice breakfast or last night supper for some elusive wild predator of the jungle. Then we moved forward and then took an uphill turn through steeps to meet the main trail. And yes we were almost lost as we had been moving in a wrong direction through that out-trail. We met some army persons after we got into the trail and they asked us why we were coming out from there, and they showed us the hiking path to take again. And there we went again climbing the stone-paved stairs but now the man-made pavements were slowly mixing with the natural pavements of blocks of medium-sized stones to rocky and muddy hilly paths.

After walking for some time, we reached an open ground that much of looked like a view-point as we could see much of the kathmandu valley from there. As we were viewing down into the valley, Akhilesh detected a movement in a tree just about 300 m away down the hill, and pointed it to me. I too saw a glimpse of movements there but could not really figure out what it was as it vanished into the forest before we could sight it. But whatever it was, it definitely was not a human activity, the tree was tall and the ground it was standing was very steep. Most probably, it should have been some monkeys, if not at least other medium mammals. And from there as we looked above, our destination - the Jamacho gumba was still so high above the clouds. After resting in the terrain for some time, we headed uphill through the dense forests again. Again with the sounds of birds all around and the shades of trees along the paths made us not even realize that we had already reached the summit, it felt so short way as we had seen the monastery from the view point to be still so far. But we have reached the place now. Then we started to eat what we brought with us, saw the valley and took photographs from the view tower there. Then we lit candles in the stupa there and prayed. After sometime, we had to move on most probably the same way we came from. But we thought of going still ahead after we have come so far, why not going just another high-point we were seeing from there. My dad was insisting to go back, but we made him convince as we two had majority. So there was again another quite unused path, and we moved ahead, there were the flags of buddhists prayers lying along the way from the trees and branches. We reached the point and there was a old army barrack which had been destroyed my maoist during the decade long people's war. It was vacant and most probably been serving as a refuge to the wildlife of the area. After spending some time there, we headed back towards the end of our journey. We passed the stupa and downhill through the forest, there again with the feel of nature and live jungle all around us. As we kept on going down, I stopped at a point with an excitement in me. I saw a poop in the way, I got excited as it was looking pretty fresh, another indirect wildlife sign. My dad and brother were joking as I was inspecting so curiously into the scat, and then my turn I said that's of a leopard and the leopard might have just walked by here about an hour or less ago. But it was not of a carnivore indeed, must be of a primate, thats most probably monkey. Then we headed downwards and reached the open field again. We sat to eat some fruits that was left with us. After finishing it, we started moving quite faster this time, it was starting to get dark slowly, we had to move fast. Then reached pass the army post we had encountered on the way. And then finally the main entrance/exit gate after about half an hour walk from there.

This way, our journey came to an end. What a wonderful hike it was, into the jungles full of wildlife, birds, nature and above all the exciting feel of the real wilderness at its best. Due to weather conditions, we could not see the Himalayas, but we did got the feel of the wind from the mountains flowing through our veins throughout the journey. It was a very splendid moment I spent my day on. I pray this pristine natural heritages of this wonderful country be always preserved through generations and generations to come. May all the wildlife living in it could take the full enjoyment of the rich nature here for decades and centuries and we humans to live in harmony with all these beautiful creations of nature. I plan to make this exploration again and again in coming days to get the feel of wilderness away from the busy urban kathmandu life.

Save Tiger

if natural selection (or is it human induced "artificial" natural selection) is to favor tigers adaptation, then they need to evolve this way: no bones, no skin, no claws, no teeth, no penis. wait! they eat meat also, so no flesh too! well then basically nothing is left, would this mean extinction? so their only adaptation in order to evolve would lead to their extinction? fucking no! yes we are their main threat, but also we are their only hope! lets boycott poaching, hunting, traditional beliefs of medicines wines, captive farming, exotic meats, circus, exotic pets ... everything that's misusing these beautiful and magnificent largest living stripped cat today!

Unlucky kitten

It was early morning, I used to workout sometime up in the terrace, it so happened that day that when I was doing some warming up, a faint chirping sound started pinching my ears. I thought it was some rats and got scared, then after some time there it was, a tiny little kitten. Maybe it was just a day or two old. I was excited to see it, and I started to meow to him, he started to meow back continuously. After sometime, I thought maybe its thinking his mother is back and he is really hungry to have breakfast. But I was little worried too.

The day went by, and later I came to know from my mom that there were actually 3 of those kittens just few days back there. She hadn't told me about it, because she knew I would spend my whole day going there. But now I knew and started worrying me in that if the mother cat took two of her kittens, then why is this one left behind? Or maybe just that the mother was waiting for a right time to secretly transfer him during night in the cover of darkness. I thought by tomorrow, he would be gone. With the rising sun of the next day, I went to see there, and then there he was still lying alone, the tiny little kitten. He looked skinny than the day before. I tried to feed some milk with help of cotton cloth, but got really little success with it. I was completely inexperienced. I thought maybe, the mother cat was inexperienced too. I found this in google, while doing research. Some inexperienced female cat who is just going to rear her first litter might sometime leave her weakest kitten to lower her burden just because she is suddenly pressurized with so many kittens to feed for the first time. If this kitten is really orphan, then he is certainly going to die. I did not want that to happen.

I told my mom, I am going to see until next day and if its still there, then I am going to take him in, and try to do what I cam to save him. I started doing more research. I came to know then cow milk is not suitable for cats, especially kittens. There were no groceries that sell cat foods in Nepal. I went to buy a feeding bottle, but only found the one for human babies. I bought it. Next day again, the kitten was still there and even more skinny. I took him down into my room for some warm environment. I tried to feed him milk with the bottle but the nipple was too big. Then again used a cotton cloth to suckle him. At times, he used to suckle my fingers, I used to feel wonderful and at the same time sad knowing that he is thinking its his mother's nipple. I started realizing he is not urinating or defecating. Again after researching, I came to know that kittens need to be stimulated for that. In the wild, their mothers would lick their genitals to stimulate them to defecate, so we could use a towel cloth soaked in warm water (body temperature) to imitate their mother's tongue and rub their genitals gently to stimulate it. He did urinate, I was relieved, but he was not defecating. It seemed like it was going to come, but then it just stops there. It got me too worried, I just felt that I am really inexperienced and was not sure if I really can help this tiny little helpless kitten.

Next day, he was looking lot better than the previous day. His tummy was looking full, looked to me like he was healthy. I was happy. I fed him, then started making him defecate, but the same problem. He was urinating however, I thought it was fine. That day too passed and I thought that I might be able to see him open his eyes one day soon. The next day, scenario seemed completely different. The kitten used to show active movements and sweet meowing vocals those previous days, but this day he was very slow, inactive, silent. I was too scared. I tried feeding him again. He was not taking milk actively. I tried defecating him, and again unsuccessful. I could not help myself and ran looking for some animal clinics. I found one at New baneshwor, but they seemed to just know nothing about cats. They just told me feed him cow milk, and they even didn't seem to know anything regarding defecation procedure for kittens. I came home, discussed with my mom, thought of taking him to animal hospital. It was just too late, the office hours were already passing, but still I had no hopes that even they would know something about kittens. Because in Nepal, cats are not as popular as dogs in terms of pets. People just know very little about cats as pets, rather they are seen as pests most of the time. I was really really worried, I even had not met my then girlfriend for almost a week, and had quarrel with her for not giving her time because of the kitten-care. Well, I just didn't care of anything else at that time than of the kitten. My full dedication was on the kitten. I needed to save him. I wanted to save him. I wanted him to open his eyes next week. I wanted him to grow. I wanted him to be a cat one day. Unfortunately these dreams I saw for him never turned true. I cannot express about the feelings I had to go through that day after I came back from the clinic. Because if I do, then it would be really impossible to explain it here in short words. All I can say is I cried so long for almost an hour or more. He had taken his last breathe around 9pm that day in my palm, I even tried to do mouth-mouth resuscitation. He was already cold. I had seen somebody die infront of my eyes for the first time in my life. I cried wildly, didn't had any food that day. Then wrapped him nicely with some cloths and kept him in his box. I don't remember how I spent that night. It was darkest night for me.

Me and my mom went to a river bank early next morning, and buried him there. We kept some flowers and I prayed for his departed soul to rest in eternal cat heaven. I felt really sorry that I could not help save his life. I thought I did a huge sin in my life by not being able to save his life. God had given me the chance to do it, but I was just too weak to fulfill that job. I still remember that poor little kitten I loved so much like my own child. Though for just few days, he had already left an important place deep in my heart. I always remember him as my sweet little child.

The following night when I took the kitten in the first day, I had heard howls of cat for long time. I had thought it might be his mom, it was sounding like how lionesses calls for their lost cubs. Thought had came in my mind to put up the kitten out in the corridor, but then again, if its not his mom, that cat might just try to kill him, infanticide. I was just scared and too confused. Or maybe it was just my very greed that let all this happen. I just can't say anything. I just didn't knew what was right thing to do, because it all seemed so confused to me. If the mother was really coming for him, then why was he not shifted with other kittens? Many things circling my mind like a whirlwind of confusions and scary nightmares. I just didn't keep the kitten out because I thought the cat might not be his mom, and it might kill him or the kitten might just feel too cold outside and maybe die even. But if any of these decisions were wrong, I really blame on me for all this. I blame myself for taking his life. I don't know what to say. The kitten was just too unlucky I think and I was just too inexperienced or greedy.

I don't want anything as such to happen again. I would study these wonderful creatures one day and try to understand them better, and do my best to make their life wonderful. I have dream to do something for such helpless stray cats or orphaned feral/stray kittens. I don't want to see another kitten to die helplessly in front of me just because I didn't know better about them, and couldn't do my best. I will study these cats, small cats, big cats, wild cats, domestic cats, all cats. This is my life desire. I have always been fascinated by them since my childhood because I really really was scared of these little ferals that roamed our cities. They were just too fierce looking predator and they really are such. Cats are the ultimate predator any ecosystem has, be it jungles, grasslands, rainforests, swamp-lands, mountains, deserts or even urbans. They are just wonderful creations of nature. We should definitely conserve all cats that are facing threats due to ever increasing habitat destruction, encroachment, poaching, hunting, illegal trade, conflicts.

Admire the beauty of nature, don't desire it. Conserve all endangered cats. They are wonderful. Nature is just wonderful due to them.

Rest in peace my little kitten! I am really sorry I could not save you! If possible, please forgive me!

********

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. 

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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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