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The Times (London)
March 2, 2013 Saturday
Edition 1; National Edition
Battle to save the Euro-leopard
Simon Barnes
The great problem with European life is that there are not nearly
enough cats. I don't mean pussy-cats: I mean the big fierce ones that
can kill you. Life is a great deal richer for the presence of enormous
menacing felids. They add a touch of Tabasco to a morning stroll.
My favourite big cat is, of course, all of them, but I can't deny a
special fondness for leopards. It's in the movement: that vast elastic
stride, the smoothness, as if every joint has been bathed in a gallon
of oil. I've seen them most often at night, in the Luangwa Valley in
Zambia, hunting them out with a spotlight. Catch them in the beam and
they look as if they are lit from within.
Leopards are cats of subtlety. In most of their range they are not the
alpha predators, ceding that role to lions and tigers. In many places
their kills can be stolen by hyenas or dhole, the Asian wild dogs. So
they tend to be nocturnal, silent, sneaky, clever: highly talented at
not being seen. Which makes seeing one all the sweeter.
Europe used to have plenty of big cats.
Herodotus, writing around 480BC, said that they were common in Greece.
Two hundred years later, Aristotle said that they were rare. Now the
idea of European lions seems a joke: an aberration: against nature.
It's nothing of the kind.
The historic range of the tiger has been reduced by 93 per cent since
the beginning of the 20th century. But the leopard, being by nature
the most subtle of all the big cats, hangs on in some unexpected
places. Like Europe. They are capable of living close to human
populations without making much impact: without being seen.
And they hang on on the very fringes of our continent. You can still
find leopards on the Caucasus, the strip of land between the Black and
the Caspian seas. Armenia counts as Europe: their football team is
ranked 50th of 53 by Uefa, the European football union, so it must be
true. And they have leopards.
The Caucasus Wildlife Refuge is a wild spot managed by an Armenian
NGO, the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural
Assets (FPWC). It is in the middle of the wildest part of the Caucasus
that spans six countries. And they've found leopards.
Samples of fur and droppings discovered in the refuge have been
subjected to genetic tests by Jerusalem Zoo, and they confirmed that
they come from the Caucasian leopard, a leopard subspecies. Our own
Euro-leopard. This now fabulously rare animal is hanging on out there:
but it's very much a creature on the edge.
My old friends at World Land Trust (I'm a council member) have
recently hooked up with FPWC and established a partnership.
They are planning to fund the Armenian organisation so that they can
buy land to extend the Wildlife Refuge, and, at the same time, fund
rangers who will patrol the place and help to prevent illegal hunting.
In other words, this impossible thing is true, and it can stay true if
there is the human will. We really do have big cats in Europe. As
Europeans we all have a share in that pleasure and, of course, an
opportunity to invest in their future.
There aren't many of them. There may be no more than 15 of them in all
Armenia. But Mary Tibbett, of World Land Trust, says: "They're
resilient and we believe they can be saved." Leopards, being among the
subtler beasts of the field, have a knack of hanging on. They're there
to save if we want them.
This fabulously '' rare animal is hanging on, but it's very much on the edge
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
March 2, 2013 Saturday
Edition 1; National Edition
Battle to save the Euro-leopard
Simon Barnes
The great problem with European life is that there are not nearly
enough cats. I don't mean pussy-cats: I mean the big fierce ones that
can kill you. Life is a great deal richer for the presence of enormous
menacing felids. They add a touch of Tabasco to a morning stroll.
My favourite big cat is, of course, all of them, but I can't deny a
special fondness for leopards. It's in the movement: that vast elastic
stride, the smoothness, as if every joint has been bathed in a gallon
of oil. I've seen them most often at night, in the Luangwa Valley in
Zambia, hunting them out with a spotlight. Catch them in the beam and
they look as if they are lit from within.
Leopards are cats of subtlety. In most of their range they are not the
alpha predators, ceding that role to lions and tigers. In many places
their kills can be stolen by hyenas or dhole, the Asian wild dogs. So
they tend to be nocturnal, silent, sneaky, clever: highly talented at
not being seen. Which makes seeing one all the sweeter.
Europe used to have plenty of big cats.
Herodotus, writing around 480BC, said that they were common in Greece.
Two hundred years later, Aristotle said that they were rare. Now the
idea of European lions seems a joke: an aberration: against nature.
It's nothing of the kind.
The historic range of the tiger has been reduced by 93 per cent since
the beginning of the 20th century. But the leopard, being by nature
the most subtle of all the big cats, hangs on in some unexpected
places. Like Europe. They are capable of living close to human
populations without making much impact: without being seen.
And they hang on on the very fringes of our continent. You can still
find leopards on the Caucasus, the strip of land between the Black and
the Caspian seas. Armenia counts as Europe: their football team is
ranked 50th of 53 by Uefa, the European football union, so it must be
true. And they have leopards.
The Caucasus Wildlife Refuge is a wild spot managed by an Armenian
NGO, the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural
Assets (FPWC). It is in the middle of the wildest part of the Caucasus
that spans six countries. And they've found leopards.
Samples of fur and droppings discovered in the refuge have been
subjected to genetic tests by Jerusalem Zoo, and they confirmed that
they come from the Caucasian leopard, a leopard subspecies. Our own
Euro-leopard. This now fabulously rare animal is hanging on out there:
but it's very much a creature on the edge.
My old friends at World Land Trust (I'm a council member) have
recently hooked up with FPWC and established a partnership.
They are planning to fund the Armenian organisation so that they can
buy land to extend the Wildlife Refuge, and, at the same time, fund
rangers who will patrol the place and help to prevent illegal hunting.
In other words, this impossible thing is true, and it can stay true if
there is the human will. We really do have big cats in Europe. As
Europeans we all have a share in that pleasure and, of course, an
opportunity to invest in their future.
There aren't many of them. There may be no more than 15 of them in all
Armenia. But Mary Tibbett, of World Land Trust, says: "They're
resilient and we believe they can be saved." Leopards, being among the
subtler beasts of the field, have a knack of hanging on. They're there
to save if we want them.
This fabulously '' rare animal is hanging on, but it's very much on the edge
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress