Wildlife fast losing habitats in Green City
Ayubias outlaw leopard caught and collared for the first time by WWF team
Please be friendly to the wildlife.And don't interfere in their matters.Spread the message....
@
Marshmallow
Rewriting the odds for the wildlife conservation in Pakistan, World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan, for the first time, mounted a GPS collar on one of the tranquilised leopards in the Galayat area of Abbotabad District on Monday, September the 2nd.
The program of statistical survey of the big cats of the Galayat area is being executed under the Conservation and Assessment Management Plan (CAMP-2004) of the IUCN which has already listed the magnificent animal as the Critically Endangered species, closing in to extinction.
Picture
The satellite tracking device was fixed on the animal and was later released in the safe area of Ayubia National Park which serves as one of the biggest Natural habitat of the common leopard found in the Galayat region.
This is the first time that a common leopard has been collared in Pakistan, WWF representative said in a press release.
GPS collaring is one of the most prolific and frequently used technique for the conservation of endangered wildlife species or even for statistical data collection about a particular species.
It not only provides valuable information about the territorial extent of an animal or a pack but also helps in avoiding Human-Animal conflict in the regions where the human population density is increasing with a rapid rate.
The leopard collared by the WWF staff, was reported to have attacked the cattle of the local herdsmen who were adamant that the same animal also attacked several women in the past. They, however, had no evidence to prove their claim. Often the leopards which come in direct contact with the humans are shot dead by the villagers who consider it a threat for themselves and their cattle.
The WWF staff was accompanied by the team of Walkabout Films Production Company which shot the whole Collar-mounting episode. The production team has also worked on several Wildlife conservation projects around the world.
The WWF team, in the span of next two years, will monitor the movement of the cat in order to ascertain its territory and its possible collision with the human settlements. The team will also carry out scatological tests to find the dietary habits of the big cats of the area.
