Leopard survey completed

After nearly two months, the leopard camera trap survey conducted by wildlife NGO Panthera on Barberton Nature Reserve phases 1, 2 and 3 has come to an end.  Although no leopards have been photographed we got some insight into what other elusive animals go about their business while humans are not watching. (For background information about the leopard survey, refer to the blog post “Counting the spots” posted on 27 July 2016).

According to Matthew Rogan who is affiliated with Panthera and who was doing the survey as part of his PhD degree, it does not mean leopards are absent from the reserves. DNA analysis of some carnivore scat samples offers an alternative way to identify leopards in Barberton Nature Reserve.  There may be several reasons why they were not photographed.  It may be that they occur at very low density and the following reasons can contribute to that. They could travel really far and have large home ranges, like in the Kgalakgadi where they may range over an area larger than one thousand square kilometers. When that happens, the probability to see them in any spot is low. However, the area around Barberton is significantly more productive than an arid zone like the Kalahari, and consequently extremely low leopard densities are likely to be caused by human disturbance of either leopards or their prey. The leopards that use the area are not necessarily residents, although one would expect leopards to remain in an area with enough prey; or they are especially at risk of coming in contact with communities and human conflict.

Matthew is now repeating the exercise at Mpumalanga Tourism and Park Agency’s Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve for the next leg of this project.  We wish him all the best and we hope the leopards there are less publicity shy and will set off one of the trap cameras in that beautiful, mountainous reserve.

Below follows photos that were taken by the Panthera camera-traps. Thank you Matt for sharing these with us.

Serval (Felis serval)

Cape Clawless Otter (Aonyx capensis)

Black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) with its black saddle on its back as the most outstanding feature that distinguishes it easily from the Side-striped jackal.

Gotcha! A Side-striped Jackal (Canis adustus) sneaking past the camera trap. The white tipped tail and lack of a saddle distinguish it from the Black -backed jackal.

 

Honey badger (Mellivora capensis)

African civet (Civettictis civetta)

African wild cat (Felis lybica)

Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus)

Caracal (Felis caracal)

 

 

 

Nice hairdo dude! A Porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) adult with two young.

Endearing Bambi: A Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus) lamb with an adult.

Counting the spots

A camera-trap photo of a leopard taken during a survey at one of Panthera’s surveillance sites in KwaZulu-Natal

A six week leopard camera-trap survey, conducted by wildlife NGO Panthera* is in progress on Barberton Nature Reserve, which includes Mountainlands. This is done in partnership with the South African National Biodiversity Institute and funded by Peace Parks Foundation.

Matthew Rogan, a University of Cape Town PhD student who is affiliated to Panthera and Panthera’s Furs for Life Project Coordinator, Gareth Whittington-Jones, have placed about 70 trap-camera-traps at various locations across the reserve. At each station two cameras have been set up opposite one another in an effort to photograph both flanks of any leopards utilising the area so that the researchers can identify individuals based on their unique spot patterns.All set up: Matthew Rogan with a trap camera-trap in the Mountainlands section of Barberton Nature Reserve

Gareth Whittington-Jones with one of the Panthera camera traps.

Leopards are notoriously elusive and the intention is to use the camera trap surveys to gather reliable data that can be used to provide the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Authority (MTPA) with robust leopard population density estimates for a number of provincial reserves in Mpumalanga. A survey was completed at Songimvelo Nature Reserve earlier in the year and further surveys are also planned for Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve and Loskop Dam Nature Reserve . This is also done in an effort to establish, in partnership with the MTPA, a monitoring framework for leopards that provides reliable data on population trends at a provincial scale.

Matthew downloads footage on a weekly basis. From our perspective the study will hopefully provide interesting insight about any leopards utilising Mountainlands as sightings have been few and far between.

Matthew (left)  and Gareth collecting a leopard scat (dropping) sample on behalf of another UCT PhD student affiliated to Panthera. DNA from scat samples will be used to develop a ‘genetic map’ of leopards in southern Africa which will help determine the origin of confiscated leopard skins and assist with identifying poaching hotspots in the region. Note Matthew and Gareth are not using their bare hands to collect the sample.

Breaking off a piece of scat that has not been touched by hands

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the conservation status of the leopard (Panthera pardus)  has recently been upgraded to ’Vulnerable’ on account of the increasing threats faced by the species. While leopard are widely distributed across Africa and Asia their populations have declined and they are now locally extinct in large areas of their historic range.

“Little is currently known about leopard populations trends in Mpumalanga, but unfortunately across many of our other surveillance sites in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo Provinces populations have shown substantial declines in recent years .’’ said Gareth.  In South Africa threats to leopard include habitat loss and fragmentation, incidental snaring, targeted poaching for skins which are used in ceremonial attire, human-leopard conflict and unsustainable trophy hunting.

We would like to wish Matthew all the best with his research and studies and look forward to sharing some of the interesting images that he captures.

*Panthera is a New York- based charitable organization devoted to preserving big cats and their ecosystems around the globe. They have initiated and supported conservation projects that protect leopards in 30 countries across Africa, the Middle East and tropical Asia.  To learn more about Panthera,  visit www.Panthera.org