Oct. 28^th, 2012 – Another Leopard sited

So, I miss understood the travel arrangements spoken by my interpreter for returning home. And my guides misunderstood my desire to return to Kathmandu as soon as possible. I had hoped to start the walk back today, meeting up with the other team members we left in the jungle, back in Kathmandu. But, instead, they will be coming to my location and we will be leaving together, tomorrow morning.

By mid afternoon, the men came out of the jungle with their findings. The tiger did not return to the kill site, but a scavenging leopard did! Not the same leopard we captured on film a few days ago (if you compare the photos taken, you can clearly see the difference between the two animals). This is not the animal responsible for the kill. (Paw prints left by this leopard are smaller than the ones discovered the day after the kill). Leopards are solitary animals but the territory of this leopard and the one we spotted days ago are very close to one another, overlapping the suspected tiger's territory. I can not judge sex by photographs alone, but my educated guess would be that we've camera trapped a male and a female leopard. Not the photograph of a tiger staring into the camera lens that I wanted, but pretty cool, nonetheless. We'll be leaving a few cameras behind to monitor these cat's activities.

New leopard scavenging two days after kill

New leopard feeding

I said goodbye to those team members that will remain in the mountains, returning to their villages. We all are proud of what we've accomplished during the past twenty days. These guys weren't just hired help. This is their home and their heritage. They were as excited as I was whenever we discovered a new track, or located fresh scat. They believe, as I do that the presence of tigers (and leopards) will help stimulate the economy of the mountain people. Not one person we contacted, even the woman who lost her calf, thought that trying to protect what tigers remain in the area was a bad thing. I think helping them receive compensation for any losses incurred due to wildlife predation, will keep them on the side of the tiger.   

Core team members

Its clear to me that I could not have documented the presence of large predators in this area of Nepal without the help of the Sherpa people. I am sure tigers are here, however, their numbers are much lower than the elder villagers had noticed during their youth. Educational awareness and protection from human anger is what is now needed.

So, the plan now is to start a foundation. We'll set up a study area next year in order to document exactly what is out here. We need to know exactly what we are dealing with as far as cat numbers, prey base, territory size, health, etc.

This is very exciting.