Saving leopards from human threats
Leopard populations in part of South Africa are decreasing in greater numbers and at a greater speed than expected, due in large part to illegal killing by humans according to new findings. A research team led by Dr Samual Williams , an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology , conducted a long-term study of the leopard population in the Soutpansberg Mountains in South Africa and found that leopard density (the number of leopards per 100 km2) had decreased by 44% between 2012 and 2016 and by 66% since 2008. Understanding threats to leopard survival The project aims to understand more about the threats faced by leopards and the research team hopes that their findings, which have been published in the academic journal Royal Society Open Science , will help inform conservation efforts. Dr Williams explained the significance of the decrease they found in leopard population density: "If the current rate of decline is not slowed down then there will be no leopards left in the western Soutpansberg Mountains by 2020. "This is especially alarming considering that in 2008 this area had one of the highest leopard population densities in Africa." Counting leopards To track leopard numbers the team set up 23 camera stations across their study area. The cameras ran continuously from January 2012 until February 2016, collecting hundreds of photos of leopards. You can see some of the remarkable photos of leopards gathered by the research team in an online photo gallery.
