Leopard Conservation Science Project

Little is known about the leopard's conservation status. There has long been an assumption that the great adaptability of leopards enables them to cope in human-dominated landscapes and persevere despite pressures such as habitat fragmentation. 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. This approach to conservation led AWFto launch the Greater Kruger Leopard Conservation Science Project in and around the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

The project goals include documenting leopard behavior and populations, and providing further opportunities for African researchers and students to get involved in conservation – an initiative that AWF believes is critical to the long-term success of wildlife conservation in Africa.

AWF project operations are based on private game reserves near Kruger National Park, and in the park itself. 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 Greater Kruger area;
• Determine the key threats to leopards in the region;
• 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 are: firstly, to develop estimates of the leopard population; secondly, to assess the influence other carnivores have on leopards by evaluating resource competition as a factor driving leopard dynamics, and evaluating space use by leopards relative to other carnivores; and thirdly, to investigate 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 "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 conclude in late 2012.

So far, we have managed to get preliminary results on leopard population estimates for the park, and we are in the process of determining leopard land use patterns relative to other carnivores, and seasonal changes in the diet of leopards relative to other carnivores.

Additionally, we have collared three lions, a leopard and a hyena at a private nature reserve on the central western border of the Kruger Park called Timbavati. Already we are able to see ecological separation and overlap between these three magnificent carnivores. Our challenge is finding funds to support a student who will continue our work there. We also need funds to procure the remaining five leopards, three lions, and five hyaenas. This information will help us inform management actions going forward.

AWF's Leopard Project will play a key advisory role in formulating management plans and techniques to promote leopard-human coexistence in South Africa by providing insights into seasonal changes in leopard land use and diet patterns, and changes in leopard numbers under different scenarios and pressures. 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 the 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 be successful.