Leopard Conservation Science Project

Little is known about the leopard’s conservation status. There has long been an assumption that leopards can cope in human-dominated landscapes and persevere despite pressures such as habitat fragmentation due to their great adaptability. However, conservation scientists agree that leopards may be more vulnerable to extinction than previously thought. On either side of the argument, there is very little research that can direct successful conservation efforts for leopards.

AWF believes that the key to ensuring the future of the leopard lies in an integrated approach to conservation that looks not only at the species itself but at the needs of local people, land use and the ecosystem as a whole. AWF launched the Greater Kruger Leopard Conservation Science Project in and around the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

The project goals include not only documenting leopard behavior and populations but to do so in the context of environmental tourism and the economic opportunities it can bring to local communities living in leopard habitat. Equally important, this project will provide further opportunities for African researchers to get involved in conservation – an initiative that AWF believes is critical to the long-term success of wildlife conservation in Africa.

Private game reserves near the Kruger National Park and the park itself are the base for AWF’s project operations. The Huntington community, which is adjacent to the reserves, is a research focal point because of the numerous incidents of leopard-human conflict recorded there and the potential to bring profitable tourism to the area, benefiting both leopards and humans alike.

The Greater Kruger Leopard Research Project is designed to achieve the following objectives:

• Establish the population of leopards, their habitat use, ranging patterns and prey-species abundance in and across the Sabi Sands-Huntington-Kruger area
• Determine the key threats to leopards in the region
• Initiate leopard-human conflict mitigation measures in the Huntington community
• Increase local capacity to manage conservation issues proactively

The Leopard Project plan was formulated in October 2007, a collaborative effort between AWF and SANParks (South African National Parks). Previous evidence suggested a change in both lion and leopard populations. However, there was no scientific evidence to support either. As a result, the project was born - an effort to formally study and document leopard populations in and around Kruger Park.

The project's specific objectives include:

• Developing estimates of the leopard population
• Understanding the influence of other carnivores on leopards
• Evaluating resource competition as a factor driving leopard dynamics
• Evaluating space use by leopards and how other carnivores influence this
• Investigating leopard dispersal through the use of genetic markers and assignment tests

A pilot study was conducted in the Singita Game Reserve near Kruger from 2008 to 2009. This study provided initial leopard population estimates as well as the groundwork for developing and using precise study techniques. The official project began in February 2010 in Kruger Park, and specially-placed cameras ("camera traps") have been used to capture the movement of wildlife within a specific area of the park (see areas of study in the image below). These photographic surveys are the base for calculating the leopard population.

In addition to camera traps, the project also uses GPS collars on leopards to help track their movements. The collars are placed on leopards that specifically live in the same areas where lions and hyenas have been collared.

These methods aim to associate space use with landscape features, habitat types and prey availability. Individual space use will help to predict leopard distribution.

The next several phases of the project will include investigations of the leopard diet in different landscapes and habitats, the amount of overlap between leopards, lions and spotted hyena, and the extent of leopard interactions with people. The full project will be conducted over the next several years and will conclude in 2012.

AWF’s Leopard Project will play a key advisory role in formulating management plans and techniques to promote leopard-human coexistence in South Africa. Another significant outcome will be the training and capacity-building of young South African conservationists who continue to be involved with this project – learning under the tutelage of the AWF research team.

Habitat protection, research and empowerment of local communities are the key to the future of the leopard – but these efforts depend on the help of the whole world to make them successful.