Dead Leopard

I'm angry; yet strangely thankful. 

I attended a media trip which was to include something I considered special: the release of a relocated leopard. It was to be the first time I would see a leopard, and I was excited.

The leopard had been captured and removed from a farm to save it's life. Simply put the farmer considered it a nuisance and a threat to his livestock. The three-year old female leopard had been held in a boma largely to disorientate the sleek but smelly feline so that she did not head back to her old haunt...

She put up a feisty fuss when the vet wanted to darted her in the dark, covered section of the boma, but was soon sedated and carried out to the table to be measured and given a medical once-over before being take to her new home to be released.

In the middle of being measured and having an injured paw attended to, the leopard stopped breathing. The vet immediately administered an injection to facilitate breathing and she started again with a few shuddering breaths, we all sighed in relief but then her breathing stopped again... and no amount of resuscitation worked.

The sleek cat, in her prime, just died. 

The first incident in more than 60 successful leopard relocations.

It was a moving and emotional moment. Just about everyone present cried and withdrew; and the people involved felt awful and then tried to explain the incident away.

It is sad; but the truth is that nobody involved in the relocation efforts is to blame. They would not be relocating leopards unless it was for their own good and preservation - and it would not be necessary is man was not encroaching on the leopard's territory and if farmers revered them rather than seeing them as pests.

I was sad when the leopard died; and then angry. Angry that it had not fought to cling to life so that my happily-ever-after do-good impression of conservation efforts remained intact. Angry that my own race - humans - had placed the leopard in jeopardy...

But a sense of thankfulness began to descend after a while. I became thankful of the sacrifice of the leopard's life. For me it, and I think for several others present, it has been a catalyst - no more than a catalyst; a thorn in my side - to spur me on to do more about conservation than merely mentally siding with nature and the animals.

It is time for me to address the urgent need for us to respect our natural environment - our host the Earth and the other creatures that reside on her with her blessing; and as a writer, one of the ways I hope to make a difference - and honour the spirit of the leopard - is to blog about relevant conservation issues.

I would like to encourage everyone to join me in honouring this leopards life - to do more for conservation than simply acknowledging it should be done - and then leaving it up to someone else.