By Rukshan Jayewardene
Leopards are an integral component of all natural eco-systems in Sri Lanka.
Today, when leopards are absent from a wilderness area, it means their extirpation has happened due to the critical depletion of the prey base that the leopards need to live on or the radical conversion of the landscape to make it habitable for humans but hostile to wildlife i.e. urbanisation.
This most adaptable of big cats has an unparalelled ability to adapt to a changing landscape and prey base. Leopards have adapted to live, at least partly, in certain urban landscapes; three cities come to mind immediately – Nairobi, Kenya; Mumbai, India; and Kandy, Sri Lanka. (In comparison to the other two, Kandy is only a town.) Unfortunately, in this adaptation, leopards are often pushed to prey on livestock, pets, and strays that replace natural prey in a human-dominated landscape. When this happens, leopards and humans are on a collision course, where, predictably, leopards are vilified and persecuted and all the appalling bad press that leopards have got for over a century of ignorant journalism is repeated by irresponsible multimedia reportage looking for sensation!
Particularly in Sri Lanka, an island that has had prehistoric hunter gatherers for 30,000 years and a long settlement history involving both urban and rural population centres and large scale agriculture that encompassed much of the island, since before a thousand years ago for a continuous period of 1,500 years, leopards have learnt to live with people rather than the other way around. (The fossil bone evidence for the presence of pre-historic tigers is further proof of the leopards’ remarkable adaptability and ability to adjust its own needs to ensure survival of the species, where other large cats failed.)
When a leopards or any big cat’s “fight or flight” response is triggered, the fight mode will be used only as long as flight is impossible. At the first opportunity to break away from the attack, the leopard will choose that option (and flee) which ensures lower risk of injury to itself which could potentially impair its ability to hunt prey. A leopard’s very survival depends on peak fitness, and when injured, there is always the option of scavenging to survive, but that option is not without its own attendant risks, and the ever present challenge from rival leopards cannot be overcome.
A leopard does seem to understand these seemingly complex issues, although from our arrogant human standpoint, we believe that a leopard can’t possibly understand such things; we have been taught that their seemingly intelligent behaviour is genetically coded instinct. This is an outdated, anthropocentric viewpoint and a stumbling block to understanding mammals.
A cornered leopard or a leopard mother defending its cubs will not conform to the known or expected pattern of behaviour, and will display all the fierce courage, immense strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as resourcefulness of one of the most successful land mammals on earth. All of this is backed by a very good understanding of human behaviour. The irony is that what has been ongoing in Hatton, Dickoya, Talawakele, Nuwara Eliya, and adjacent areas never needs to have happened. In fact, wild leopards are one of this country’s greatest natural assets, and people that live close to leopards can, through proper education and well-designed programmes, become beneficiaries of the leopard’s great natural attraction to both local and foreign tourists.
Apart from instincts, superior hearing and sight that serve it equally well – day or night – and other evolutionary traits, a leopard’s greatest asset is its capacity to learn from its mother as well as through its own experience. Leopards are cautious and elusive by design (choice) rather than by chance or instinct. The most important lessons that a leopard will learn (and which is key to its survival as an individual) during its lifetime will be about us (people) who are their neighbours and who also live in a landscape level similar to their own requirements.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) cannot herd wild leopards into national parks, sanctuaries, and reserves as some believe, because we now increasingly live and farm in areas which were, until recently, exclusive leopard habitat, and (as a direct result) leopards appearing near homesteads are seen as a huge problem. This country does not “search and destroy” all leopards living adjacent to settlements, regardless of how people who live in these areas and their local political representatives feel.
Leopards have a high level of statutory protection under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO) and perpetrators are punishable to the full extent of the law. The Police have an important role to play, but often they are part of the problem rather than part of a possible solution. The (Indian) protocol that I refer to below has a specific and important (even critical) role for the area police in all such incidents.
It is hoped that the DWC will decentralise and uniformly apply an excellent protocol document for incidents such as those that happened throughout the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. This protocol has been originally devised in India, has been adapted to Sri Lanka, and is translated into all local official languages. By not uniformly applying this protocol in responding to crises involving leopards in snares, many leopards have died including the only black leopard to have ever survived a snare. (He died a few days later in May 2020.) It is personally communicated to me that the most likely cause of death was capture myopathy, an avoidable death in captivity. There is a need for veterinary training and an ironclad protocol to be followed in the management of rescued leopards recovering from snare injuries and the shock of close proximity to humans.
On the bright side, recent outreach work and education in the estates at middle management level by the Friends of Horton Plains supported by the Rain Forest Alliance may be bearing fruit. The low incidence of leopard deaths in the tea country this year (2022) might be a direct result. The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) together with LOLC is putting into place a multi-site monitoring system that will gather information about the status of the Sri Lankan leopard across the island. This kind of data gathering can and will be used to develop conservation strategies and research.
(Rukshan Jayewardene A founding trustee at the Leopard Trust; Chairman of the Wilderness and Protected Areas Foundation, former Director at the Environmental Foundation Limited ( EFL) and past President of the WNPS. A lifelong passion for Wildlife; Interested in evolution, adaptive radiation of species, the long-term conservation of leopards and all biodiversity related issues. A wildlife photographer who believes the role of photography in conservation is best served by adhering to standards and ethics.)
The history of wildlife protection in Sri Lanka is almost synonymous with that of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka. At 128 years old, the WNPS is the third oldest Non-governmental Organisation of its kind in the World and was responsible for the setting up of the Wilpattu and Yala National Parks in Sri Lanka, and of the formation of the Department of Wildlife Conservation
