IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kittle, A.; Watson, A. | |
| Home range, demography and behaviour of the Sri Lankan montane zone leopard (_Panthera pardus kotiya_) | |
| Full Book | |
We recognize that a great deal more data needs to be collected in order to fully understand the leopard population and its attributes in the Hantane area; however this is an important pilot study, which addresses a number of meaningful questions. Of primary importance is the confirmed fact that leopards are residing full time in the Dunumadalawa forest reserve and not merely visiting this forest patch from time to time. Not only are they residing, they are raising cubs. This means that the forest reserve cannot be seen as marginal forest or a buffer. Furthermore, the human-leopard conflict, manifest in the form of leopards killing dogs and livestock is an issue, however the forest reserve does hold a wide variety of prey and it appears from the fecal sampling that the overwhelming majority of leopard prey is wild game and not domestic pets or livestock. From discussions with boundary landowners, reserve staff and villagers it is apparent that the issue of leopards taking dogs has been in existence for many years; it appears to be cyclical, perhaps occurring more during the existence of cubs which can occur approximately every 2 years. While we heard about the issue from many different people, the number of actual incidents were relatively few but widely reported. The Dunumadalawa forest reserve is a very important wilderness area, made more so by the verified existence of a resident leopard population - an endangered species listed under CITES Appendix II throughout its Asian range. That it is connected to other vibrant forest patches via low quality habitat such as tea estates and Pinus plantations is of vital importance for the future of the faunal inhabitants of this forest. Only one National Park - Horton Plains - exists in the entire Central Hill zone of Sri Lanka, while this ecological zone of sub-montane, wet to moist evergreen forests exhibits a remarkably high level of biodiversity and endemism. Already the land use history of estate plantations had decimated the original forest in this area, which underlines the importance of making a concerted effort to protect the few remaining forest patches and perhaps regenerate additional ones within this important zone. Our final recommendation and suggestion is that this area be given higher protection levels and that with more study (forthcoming under our ongoing project work) the connecting forested areas of Hantana through Galaha to Piduratalagala be considered for Reserve, Sanctuary or National Park status and that other land use areas (eg. Estate lands such as the Hantane tea estate, Uda Pussellawa tea estate) be conserved as they are and protected from increased development. |
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