I stumbled across an article on BBC News about a leopard running around a town called Meerut in India, and it got me thinking.
The images were what caught my eye – a beautiful wild creature in concrete surroundings. It’s rather sad, really.
BBC News
Conservationists are warning that confrontations with wild big cats are going to rise as we encroach onto their land. You’d have to live under a rock to not know we destroy mass amounts of natural big cat habitat every day. So as we slowly tighten the ropes on their home, where are they meant to go?
When I read the article I found myself more concerned for the cat than anything else. It’s probably terrified wandering around a completely alien environment surrounded by humans, who, let’s not forget, are their only threat.
The article mentions that they are tracking down the leopard to tranquillize it. I’m hoping this means it will be released back into the wild and not sold for parts for medicine.
Tigers and other big cats have been known to stray into populated areas and conservationists have warned that such confrontations may increase as humans encroach on animal habitats. – BBC News
I’ve spoken about the issue of us pushing wild animals to their limits before with my article on urban foxes. Why is it that wild animals that come into our patch are seen as dangers and nuisances when it’s us who are forcing them out of their natural homes?
Flickr – Jack Malvern
I may be biased on the subject, but to me it just proves how selfish mankind is. We’ve stolen so much land from wild animals to service our needs for living space with a growing population. But what do we do to other animals who have a population booming? Culls.
It’s a similar thing when we talk about why Britain doesn’t have wolves anymore – they had no predators and their numbers were growing too much for our liking since they’re a possible threat.
Deer have recently been culled because they have no natural predators thanks to us getting rid of all the wolves. So their numbers were booming which was causing damage to the natural forests. I find it slightly ironic that suddenly there’s an interest in preserving the natural and wild parts of our world.
Perhaps I’m too cynical, but seeing articles like this just sadden me even more. We really are ruining the world by simply presuming it’s ours.
Flickr – Nomadic Lass
Read the BBC News article here.
Flickr images – creative commons
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