Leopard attack in Hatton Changing spots to solve the problem Will relocating the animal help?
By Risidra Mendis-2018-01-07
The circumstances leading to the attack on five estate workers from the Panamure Estate in Hatton a few days ago by a male leopard are yet to be established.
While villagers blame the leopard for the attack on the estate workers, environmentalists say that the leopard is not at fault and would have attacked the villagers because it was trapped or threatened.
The five injured estate workers were admitted to the Dickoya Hospital on 2 January. However environmentalists say the video aired on TV of villagers chasing the leopard is a clear indication that the animal was threatened and scared by them and would have attacked in self-defence.
But due to intense pressure by villagers in the area and threats that the leopard will be killed if caught by them, wildlife officers have decided to capture the leopard and relocate it to another area.
Bad press
Trustee, Leopard Trust, President, Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) and Director, Environment Foundation Ltd (EFL) Rukshan Jayewardene told Ceylon Today that leopards are an integral part of all natural eco-systems in Sri Lanka.
He explained that when leopards are absent from a jungle area, it means their extirpation happened due to a critical depletion of the prey base that the leopard needs to live on, or the radical conversion of the landscape such as urbanization, to make it habitable for humans but hostile to wildlife.
“Leopards have adapted to live at least partly in certain urban landscapes. Three cities that immediately, come to mind are Nairobi in Kenya, Mumbai in India and Kandy in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately in this adaptation, leopards are often pushed to prey on livestock and pets 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 reportage is repeated by an irresponsible media, looking for sensation,” Jayewardene explained.
He added that particularly in an island such as Sri Lanka that has had pre-historic hunter-gatherers for thirty thousand years and a long settlement history involving both urban and rural population centres and large scale agriculture that encompassed much of the island, since pre-Christian times, leopards have learnt how to live with people rather than the other way around.
“Fossil bone evidence for the presence of both tigers and lions since pre-historic times is further proof of the leopards’ great adaptability and ability to adjust its own needs to ensure survival where others failed. The incident like that at Panamure Estate is so out of character for known behaviour of wild leopards, a leopard attacking several people at the same time, beggars belief (but it happened).
“When a leopard’s or any big cat’s ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered, the fight ‘mode,’ will be used only as long as flight is not possible. At the first opportunity to break away from the attack, the leopard will choose that option and run away which ensures, lower risk of injury to itself, potentially impairing its ability to hunt prey.
“A leopard’s very survival, depends on peak fitness. 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,” Jayewardene said.
Outdated views
He said that a leopard does understand these seemingly complex issues, although from our arrogant human standpoint we believe that a leopard can’t possibly understand such things, and we have been taught that their seemingly intelligent, behaviour is genetically coded instinct.
“This outdated, anthropocentric viewpoint is one of our greatest stumbling blocks; dare I say as a species? And makes us constantly underestimate other intelligent species that we need to contend with. 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, lightning speed, and resourcefulness, of one of the most successful land mammals that the world has ever seen.
All of this is backed by a very good understanding of human behaviour,” Jayewardene explained.
He added that the tragic irony of what is ongoing in Hatton never needs to happen and that wild leopards are one of this country’s great natural assets, and people that live close to leopards, can through proper education and awareness programmes become beneficiaries of the leopard’s great attraction to both local and foreign tourists, who would pay well for just a glimpse of a free living leopard, outside of a traditionally protected area.
“These are fast becoming more like zoos than true wilderness areas due to over visitation. A leopard is endowed with many unique abilities that enable it to live as an apex predator. Apart from instincts, super senses, that serve it equally well, day or night and other evolutionary traits, the leopard’s greatest asset is its capacity to learn from its mother as well as through its own experience.
“The most important lessons that a leopard will learn during its lifetime will be about people who are their neighbours who live in a landscape similar to their own requirements. We cannot herd wild leopards into National parks and sanctuaries because we now increasingly live and farm in areas which were not long ago, exclusively leopard habitat. This is patently impossible to do, for several good reasons.
“We cannot search and destroy all leopards living near settlements because it is illegal and leopards have a high level of protection under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO) and perpetrators are punishable to the full extent of the law,” Jayewardene explained.
He added that people deal in myths, anecdotes, horror stories and hype, and are constantly surprised and therefore caught flat-footed, when leopards don’t correspond to our beliefs about them.
“Unfortunately; this is true of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) in general, that has yet to put into place an excellent protocol for incidents such as what is ongoing in Hatton. Unhelpful and irresponsible references such as the Enemy (Sathura) that are being used in the electronic media only compounds, an already vexed and emotional situation,” Jayewardene said.
Losing their habitat
Commenting on the leopard attack in Hatton, Zoologist Dilan Peiris said not much attention is paid towards Up-country leopards in Sri Lanka. “Due to the clearing of tea estate areas to plant new tea bushes, due to the new houses being built and the clearing of forest areas in the Up-country, leopards are losing their habitat every day.
“When the leopards lose their source of food, it is only natural that they will go into villages and prey on dogs and cattle. When people see a leopard in the village they chase it away or try to kill the animal. A leopard will attack a human only if it is threatened or if it wants to escape from being captured. Yala and Wilpattu National Parks are famous for their leopard sightings.
But DWLC has no idea as to how many leopards there are in the country and where these animals are located,” Peiris said.
He added that no research has been done recently on the leopard population in Sri Lanka and that for many years he has been saying the leopards have to be protected and awareness programmes should be carried out to ensure their survival in the wild.
“When I complain to DWLC about the danger to leopards in the country, wildlife officers ask me what should be done to solve the problem. When a leopard attacks a person in one area, relocating the leopard is not a solution to the problem.
“It is the people who cause problems for the leopard, but it is the leopard that has to eventually suffer through relocation to another area. The leopard brings in a lot of foreign revenue but is not protected from being injured and killed by DWLC,” Peiris explained.
DWLC Director General M.G.C. Sooriyabandara confirmed that plans are underway to capture and relocate the leopard that attacked estate workers in Hatton.
“The leopard is not in this area now but a team of wildlife officers are waiting to catch the animal when it
reappears. Relocation is not the solution to the problem. However when a group of people get together and say they want the leopard out we have no choice but to relocate the animal for the animal’s safety.
“Leopards are territorial and relocating is difficult. However once we capture the leopard we will examine the health of the animal and then decide where we are going to relocate it to,” Sooriyabandara said.
SRI LANKA 