Zanzibar leopard

Zanzibar leopard
Mounted specimen in the Zanzibar Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Suborder:Feliformia
Family:Felidae
Subfamily:Pantherinae
Genus:Panthera
Species: P. pardus
Subspecies: P. p. pardus
Trinomial name
Panthera pardus pardus
Synonyms

formerly P. p. adersi[1]

The Zanzibar leopard is an African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) population on Unguja Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, Tanzania. It is the island's largest terrestrial carnivore and apex predator. In 2008, it was considered extinct due to persecution by local hunters.[2] Increasing conflict between people and leopards in the 20th century led to their demonization and determined attempts to exterminate them. Efforts to develop a leopard conservation program in the mid-1990s were shelved when wildlife researchers concluded that there was little prospect for the population's long-term survival.[3] However, camera trap footage revealed in 2018 of a similar-looking leopard has renewed hopes for the population's survival, though little information is known.[4]

The Zanzibar leopard was described as a leopard subspecies by Reginald Innes Pocock, who proposed the scientific name Panthera pardus adersi in 1932.[1] In 1996, it was subsumed to P. p. pardus.[5][6]

Evolutionary history

The evolutionary history of the Zanzibar leopard parallels that of other endemics on Unguja, including the Zanzibar servaline genet and the Zanzibar red colobus. It is thought to have evolved in isolation from the African leopard since at least the end of the Ice Age, when the island was separated from mainland Tanzania by rising sea levels. The founder effect and adaptation to local conditions produced a smaller leopard than its continental relatives and one whose rosettes have partially disintegrated into spots.[7][8]

Behavior and Ecology

Very little is known about the Zanzibar leopard's behavior and ecology.[9] It has never been studied in the wild, and the last sighting of a live leopard happened in the early 1980s.[10] Most zoologists have since presumed the Zanzibar leopard to be extinct or very nearly so.[3]

Only six skins have been located in museums, including the type specimen in the Natural History Museum, London, and a much-faded mounted specimen in the Zanzibar Museum.[2] However, Zanzibar government statistics indicate that leopards were still being killed by hunters in the mid-1990s, and islanders continue to report sightings and livestock predation.[11]

Extirpation

Close up of head

Rural Zanzibaris’ descriptions of the leopard and its habits are characterized by the widespread belief that a large number of these carnivores are kept by witches and sent by them to harm or otherwise harass villagers. This belief comes together with an elaborate package of ideas about how leopards are bred, trained, exchanged and sent to do the evil bidding of their owners. For local farmers this supplies a neat explanation for predation by leopards, and more generally for their appearance "out of place" in the vicinity of farms and villages.[12]

The growth of human population and agriculture in the 20th century was largely responsible for this state of affairs, as people encroached on leopard habitat and prey species. Increasing conflict with leopards and the fear that this generated led to a series of campaigns to exterminate them. These were localized at first, but became island-wide after the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, when a combined anti-witchcraft and leopard-killing campaign was launched under the leadership of a witch-finder.[13] The long-term result of this campaign and the subsequent classification of the leopard as "vermin" was to bring them to the brink of extinction.[9]

Conservation

Serious attention was not paid to the Zanzibar leopard's plight until the mid-1990s, by which time some authorities were already listing it as extinct.[14] A leopard conservation program was drafted by the CARE-funded Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Project, but abandoned in 1997 when wildlife researchers failed to find evidence for the leopard's continuing presence in and around Jozani forest.[3]

Local wildlife officials, however, remained more optimistic about the leopard's survival, and some Zanzibaris have proposed approaching alleged leopard keepers in order to ask them to display their leopards to paying visitors. Villagers sometimes offer to take tourists or researchers to see "domesticated" leopards in return for cash, but so far none of these "kept leopard chases" has been known to end in a successful sighting.[10][15][16]

These conflicting perceptions of the Zanzibar leopard's status and the possibility of its conservation have yet to be reconciled, presenting a dilemma that has been highlighted by researchers.[17][18][19][20]

Possible survival

In 2018, a camera trap, placed for an Animal Planet show called Extinct or Alive, caught apparent footage of a leopard on Unguja Island. The leopard appeared smaller than leopards from the mainland, and seemed to have smaller, more solid spots than normally seen on African leopards. Further investigations are planned in order to confirm whether or not this is a Zanzibar leopard, and whether a viable population still exists.[4]

See also

Leopard subspecies: African leopard  · Arabian leopard  · Anatolian leopard  · Persian leopard  · Indian leopard  · Indochinese leopard  · Javan leopard  · Sri Lankan leopard  · Amur leopard  · European Ice Age leopard

References

  1. 1 2 Pocock, R. I. (1932). "The Leopards of Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 102 (2): 543–591. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1932.tb01085.x.
  2. 1 2 Walsh, M.T. & Goldman, H.V. (2008). "Updating the Inventory of Zanzibar Leopard Specimens". Cat News. 49: 4–6.
  3. 1 2 3 Stuart, C. & Stuart, T. (1997). A Preliminary Faunal Survey of South-eastern Unguja (Zanzibar) with Special Emphasis on the Leopard Panthera pardus adersi. Loxton, South Africa: African-Arabian Wildlife Research Centre.
  4. 1 2 "Zanzibar Leopard Captured on Camera, Despite Being Declared Extinct". Inside Edition. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
  5. ↑ Miththapala, S.; Seidensticker, J.; O'Brien, S. J. (1996). "Phylogeographic Subspecies Recognition in Leopards (P. pardus): Molecular Genetic Variation". Conservation Biology. 10 (4): 1115–1132. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10041115.x.
  6. ↑ Uphyrkina, O.; Johnson, E.W.; Quigley, H.; Miquelle, D.; Marker, L.; Bush, M.; O'Brien, S. J. (2001). "Phylogenetics, genome diversity and origin of modern leopard, Panthera pardus" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 10 (11): 2617–2633. doi:10.1046/j.0962-1083.2001.01350.x. PMID 11883877.
  7. ↑ Pakenham, R.H.W. (1984). The Mammals of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Harpenden: privately printed.
  8. ↑ Kingdon, J. (1989). Island Africa: The Evolution of Africa's Rare Animals and Plants. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  9. 1 2 Walsh, M.T. & Goldman, H.V. (2003). "The Zanzibar Leopard Between Science and Cryptozoology". Nature East Africa. 33 (1/2): 14–16.
  10. 1 2 Swai, I.S. (1983). Wildlife Conservation Status in Zanzibar. Unpublished M.Sc. dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.
  11. ↑ Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2002). "Is the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) Extinct?". Journal of East African Natural History. 91 (1/2): 15–25. doi:10.2982/0012-8317(2002)91[15:ITZLPP]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0012-8317.
  12. ↑ Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (1997). "A Leopard in Jeopardy: An Anthropological Survey of Practices and Beliefs which Threaten the Survival of the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi)". Zanzibar Forestry Technical Paper No. 63, Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Project, Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar. Retrieved 2011-05-29.
  13. ↑ Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2007). "Killing the King: The Demonization and Extermination of the Zanzibar Leopard [Tuer le roi: la diabolisation et l'extermination du leopard de Zanzibar]". In Dounias, E.; Motte-Florac, E.; Dunham, M. Le symbolisme des animaux: L'animal, clef de voûte de la relation entre l'homme et la nature? [Animal symbolism: Animals, keystone of the relationship between man and nature?]. Paris: Éditions de l’IRD. pp. 1133–1182.
  14. ↑ Nowell, K. & Jackson, P. (1996). Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
  15. ↑ Marshall, S. (1994). The Status of the Zanzibar Leopard. SIT Tanzania & Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
  16. ↑ Selkow, B. (1995). A Survey of Villager Perceptions of the Zanzibar Leopard. SIT Tanzania & Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
  17. ↑ Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2007). "Human-Wildlife Conflict, Unequal Knowledge and the Failure to Conserve the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi)". Poster presented to the Felid Biology and Conservation Conference, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford, 17–21 September 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  18. ↑ Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2008). "When Culture Threatens the Conservation of Biological Diversity: The Tragic Case of the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi)". Poster presented to Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World: Lessons for Global Policy, Thirteenth Annual Symposium of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, New York, 2–5 April 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  19. ↑ Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2012). "Chasing Imaginary Leopards: Science, Witchcraft and the Politics of Conservation in Zanzibar". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 6 (4): 727–746. doi:10.1080/17531055.2012.729778.
  20. ↑ Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2017). "Cryptids and credulity: The Zanzibar leopard and other imaginary beings". Anthropology and Cryptozoology: Exploring Encounters with Mysterious Creatures. London: Routledge: 54–90. doi:10.4324/9781315567297-11 (inactive 2018-06-24).
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