A leopard is responsible for killing at least 15 people Nepal in the last fifteen months, prompting local authorities to issue a reward for the animal in hopes of putting an end to the killings.
The leopard is primarily attacking villagers who reside in remote areas in Western Nepal. The leopard’s victims have been mostly children under the age of ten; four have been children older than ten, and one victim was a 29 year old woman. The latest victim was a four year old boy, whose remains were found one kilometer from his village.
Kamal Prasad Kharel, the police chief of the Baitadi district where the attacks have occurred, says that one leopard is likely responsible for all the attacks, and at most two leopards are to blame. Maheshwor Dhakal, an ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in Kathmandu, agrees, stating that if more than two animals were behind the attacs, the number of attacks would be much higher. He cites the high salt content in human blood as one reason why a leopard who attacks a human will not readily return to hunting its natural prey. “Since human blood has more salt than animal blood, once wild animals get the taste of salty blood they do not like other animals like deer,” he said.
The reward, which amounts to Rs. 25,000 (or roughly $300), has been offered for anyone who captures or kills the leopard. Local village residents with guns and armed police forces have begun hunting for the leopard.
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The ecological concern behind this management strategy is the potential for excessive leopard killings. The panic caused by the attacks, and the unregulated reward system in place, creates an incentive for locals to hunt leopards aggressively. Local residents and police forces do not possess the ability to correctly identify the suspected leopard over other leopards in the area, and therefore there is a high likelihood that leopards not responsible for the attacks will be killed.
Furthermore, the hyperbolic reporting of the attacks in US and UK media outlets has increased the perception of hysteria and is potentially intended to encourage first-world readers to support the administration’s decision to offer a reward for the leopard. Both the CNN and Daily mail articles linked below begin with the sentence “A ferocious leopard may have killed 15 people in Nepal…” The use of sensationalism in these articles creates the impression that this particular leopard is a ‘man-eating beast’. Neither article cites potential environmental reasons why the leopard may have resorted to hunting humans, nor do they discuss the impact of the reward system on local leopard populations.
Although the leopard is not listed as endangered in Nepal, it is listed as a Status II, meaning it is “not yet threatened, but (…) could become endangered if trade is not controlled.”
Links:
The Wildlife Blog 