Leopards

[Jocelyn Walker]

Did you know that there are still quite a few areas in Africa where leopards like the beautifull specimen shown in pic of the day, still roam free! ie not in reserves! Conservationists are still trying to educate people not to shoot them as 'pests' for killing their livestock. I guess this still happens to other animals around the world, but soon future generations will only be able to look at photos to know what these animals once looked like

[Tinka]

Re: Leopards

Did you know that there are still quite a few areas in Africa where leopards like the beautifull specimen shown in pic of the day, still roam free! ie not in reserves! Conservationists are still trying to educate people not to shoot them as 'pests' for killing their livestock. I guess this still happens to other animals around the world, but soon future generations will only be able to look at photos to know what these animals once looked like

Hi Jocelyn,
I am in total agreement with your sentiments, however, if the lives and health of your wife and children, and/or the whole village depended on your/the livestock, you would have to protect the livestock first. remember we shoot fox's etc: to protect our poultry/sheep etc;, and we can just nip down the supermarket and get a chicken/leg of lamb, if we have to, the protection of our livestock is mainly to protect finantial gain. they are protecting their livestock so as to be able to survive.
I don't have an answer, Do you?

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Leopards

Yes possibly! Call the Wildlife conservationists/fundis with such things & get them to relocate the animal if possible to an area not so inhabited by livestock! In Africa the philosophy in growing crops used to be, plant a number of seeds for each 1 that may grow to fruition! 1 for the worms or insects, 1 for the birds, 1 for the ancestors and 1 for me! Why can't it be the same for livestock? (probably high % of goats) It's not quite the same financially I know, but still! Wild animals roamed the world long before us humans! We need to live in harmony with the earth & its creatures! Another suggestion would be to build stronger bomas maybe!

[coupekid]

Re: Leopards

Hi Jocelyn,
I am in total agreement with your sentiments, however, if the lives and health of your wife and children, and/or the whole village depended on your/the livestock, you would have to protect the livestock first. remember we shoot fox's etc: to protect our poultry/sheep etc;, and we can just nip down the supermarket and get a chicken/leg of lamb, if we have to, the protection of our livestock is mainly to protect finantial gain. they are protecting their livestock so as to be able to survive.
I don't have an answer, Do you?

If you worried about the lives of your children, why move to somewhere that is inhabitted by such lovely, but potentially dangerous animals.
Also, rather than spend the money on firearms to kill the animals, spend on a fence?

[guymclaren]

Re: Leopards

Keeping kitty out with a fence, I'd like to see that, I saw kitty the other day and he had a gazelle on his shoulder, climbing a tree, too far for my pissy little camera. In this part of the world people are born, live and die in the neighbourhood of these cats. Occassionaly they eat a little livestock, even more occassionally they will eat an animal that is bipedal, but mostly they stay away.

Kitty is generally not murdered with firearms but with snares and spears. The funniest though is when Jumbo decides he wants some lettuce.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Leopards

Guy, I know that in Africa poaching & killing is done with snares & spears, but there are also those armed with rifles! My cousin was murdered in Kenya a year ago on the 13th of January! She was shot with an AK47....why? She was a Wildlife conservationist.... I've seen the snares with dead & dying animals, some gnawing away at limbs to free themselves! I've also seen a leopard shot that was an amazing & exquisite beast, because it swam across a channel to the mainland of Mombasa & scared the inhabitants. A sight I will never forget! I too have been to Mpumalanga! To Tsavo, Serengetti & Amboselli in East Africa! Reserves in Swaziland & KwaZulu Natal! Talking about murder, how many people have been killed in South Africa by Hijackers, an everyday occurence in Johannesburg, armed with guns & rifles! I saw it outside the gates of my work on 2 occassions. We won't even broach the subject of 'canned' lion hunts (the grosest tourist trade on earth) because thats another story!
Sorry if I sound a little rude, I don't mean to be! I just see thing from a different point of view & feel for what I believe in.

[guymclaren]

Re: Leopards

Yeah those are normally well organised gangs funded ny their respectrive governments or foreigners. We don't see to much of that down here

[spl]

Re: Leopards

We used to get leopards and black eagles on Table Mountain above my parent's house in Cape Town but by the time I was in my teens they had gone not becuase of hunting - I honestly don't think that happened there probably becuase in a city people have got other things to do. I don't really know why they went probably becuase their food chain was being effected further down by population pressures such as increased pollution etc.

I remember being alone on the mountain not too high up - just a bit further up behind Cape Town University. I was sitting next to a couple of fir trees and this huge black eagle made a dive for me - talons spread but then at the last minute I think it saw that I was too big for it and flew back up - it was an incredible exprience.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Leopards

There are Black Eagles in Joburg...have been a nesting pair for a number of years at a Walter Sissulu Reserve, which wasn't very far from my apartment in Windsor West. They nest at the top of the waterfall. There is a webcam these days that one can watch the progress of the chics in the nest. It's great. I had a pair of Eagle Owls that frequently came to visit my tree or TV arial! They are big & beautiful. There are still leopards in the Cedarberg mountains in the Cape apparantly!

[spl]

Re: Leopards

The best place for Black Eages is Matopis in Zimbabwe. I remember going there and you could literally see at least six or more soaring on the thermals high up at any one time. I was told that it was becuase there were so many dassies on the huge rocks there and their food supply was so plentiful that their territories naturally shrunk to a fraction of the size that they usually are.

[coupekid]

Re: Leopards

Keeping kitty out with a fence, I'd like to see that

I'll take some pictures for you! There are a few safari parks in the UK that manage it hehe!