was lured into a cage by a small puppy during the night. It had been
roaming around the village the previous nights. The population
demanded intervention from the traditional chief and park guards. A
trap was set and less than 24 hours later - voila, the leopard.
I rode up to see the leopard, hoping to see it alive, but it had been
shot by park guards. The entire village of Epulu nearly came to see
its carcass. Why all the intrigue? For a villager, the leopard
represents mystery and sorcery. The leopards are controlled by a
sorcer, who keeps them in his house, where to other villagers, they
appear as a dog. The sorcerer walks around with his leopard at night,
and if you seem him with it, he'll tell you the leopard is a dog. The
keeper of this leopard will die soon - within a week or two, but not
more. Finally, everybody will know who was the keeper.
Their viewpoint is that the leopard is an opportunistic hunter, who
will kill anything, even a man. The village chief had some sort of a
witchcraft cleansing ceremony with the leopard, before it was examined
and measured by the park guards. The meat was distributed and I don't
know what was done with the skin or body parts.
The leopard is the biggest cat in the tropical forest ~60kg, and the
top of the foodchain. Even for a conservationist, leopards are
mysterious - they are poorly understood because they are solitary,
shy, and moving all the time. Leopards routinely patrol their
territory - walking 25 or more km every night. Leopards are the only
predator (besides man) of the okapi and other large mammals of the
tropical forest. Of the 13 okapis in Epulu, the animals born in
captivity have shiny coats, perfect striped patterns on their
hind-quarters and well shaped ears. Those animals which had been
captured often have scratch marks which interrupt the striped
hind-quarters, ragged ears, and dull looking coats. The scratch marks
certainly come from a leopard - these swift predators stalk prey which
can be more than 4 times its size, ALONE - not in a pack.
This animal had a grave wound on its right front paw - he or she had
pulled himself out of a metal snare. The right front paw was
gruesomely mangled - maybe fractured, very tender and open to
infection. He or she was maybe three years old - 5 years away from
being mature. Leopards live at very low densities - and there may be
a few hundred total in the whole of the Okapi Reserve - which is
larger than the state of Connecticut.
The forests are growing emptier and emptier as a result of
commercialization of bushmeat hunting. Leopards are lured to villages
where they can opportunistically find a loose chicken, dog, or goat.
Near villages, risks for leopards are also increased - from being
trapped or injured by snares. They'll certainly survive most snare
wounds for a while, but they are then forced to stay close to villages
in order to survive.
Since ages and ages ago, villagers have fear of leopards as dangerous
man-eaters - and controlled by sorcery. They justify the killing of
the leopards to assuage their fears. It is difficult to cross this
gap in viewpoints - from conservationist to villager. Normal human
activities - or dark sorcery - could be responsible for leopards
searching for their death near villages. A hunter who let out a metal
snare will see the leopard's fur in his snare or will find that his
snare has been destroyed. Will he be able to acknowledge even to
himself that he caused the early death of king of the forest? If yes,
will he care? Or his he caught up in the sorcery rumormill too.
Rumors of other leopards persist - more sorcerers? or just more kings
of the forest in danger?
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