Leopards: 21st Century Cats Natural World

LEOPARD GROWLS

Across India, two worlds are colliding.

Every year, scores of people are killed by leopards.

And hundreds of these big cats are stoned, trapped or shot.

I grew up in India,

and I've devoted my life to conserving its wild creatures.

What interests me is the story behind the headlines.

What is it really like, living with these animals on your doorstep?

And how does one of the world's top predators survive

in a country of over a billion people?

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

South India has been my home for 50 years.

I'd always felt safe here, at least from wild animals.

I'll never forget when that changed.

The day we suspected that something went wrong is

when our dog disappeared.

We actually made a complaint to the police, saying that our dog's

been stolen and put in a reward for his recovery.

A few days after Karadi disappeared,

our neighbours were looking up on the hill and saw an animal up

there, which they actually thought was Karadi and called him, but

whatever it was, it turned around and slunk off into the forest.

Soon after that, I hired a couple of trackers.

The first thing they actually found was the dog's hair

on the top of the fence, and I said,

"Well, obviously, he jumped over, gone to the road, gotten stolen".

I mean, it all sort of added up.

But they kept finding bits of hair...

..and eventually found Karadi's remains.

Our magnificent German Shepherd,

the most beautiful dog we'd ever owned,

had been reduced to skin and bones.

I had my suspicions about what had done it.

As a precaution, I started locking up the dogs at night.

Then, after nine months, the killer returned.

I turned around to go back into the house,

when suddenly I heard this blood curdling sound.

DOG HOWLS

I immediately whipped around -

there was a leopard on top of Coco, right there.

It grabbed Coco by the throat,

and it was raking the body with her claws.

The leopard looked up, saw me coming, I turned

around to see where Jonaki was, I looked back, the leopard was gone.

There was no doubt about it, we were living with a leopard.

Leopards are notoriously secretive animals.

They often go unnoticed, despite being more widespread

and more abundant than any other cat.

Pound for pound, they're extremely powerful.

Whether fighting or hunting, it's their sharp claws

and dagger-like canines that do the damage.

What sets them apart though is their sheer opportunism.

They'll eat almost anything, from an insect to a buffalo.

And this natural versatility enables them to exploit our world,

as my dog had just learned to its cost.

The near fatal attack on Coco had been so quick,

I'd barely glimpsed the leopard.

It took me months to get a picture of it on my camera trap.

When I eventually succeeded,

I could hardly believe the size of the animal.

I started looking into the severity

and frequency of leopard attacks on people.

And the more you look, the crazier it gets.

It seems that run ins with these big cats are happening more often.

HE SPEAKS HINDI

Fatal encounters are being reported from all over the country.

In fields, villages, and even cities.

LOUD CHATTERING

In fact, leopards now kill far more people than tigers.

Is it because we're encroaching too much into their habitat?

Or are there different factors at play?

Why is it that some leopards prefer to avoid us,

while others become man-eaters?

I'm heading first to Rajasthan.

The place I'm going to is a long way from any national park,

yet it's said to be one of the best spots in India to see wild leopards.

Even in rural backwaters, India is developing at a staggering pace.

When you realise that less than 5% of the country is set aside

for wildlife, it's remarkable how many wild animals are still around.

Leopards have fared much better than tigers,

in part because they are more adaptable.

Around half of them, 7,000 perhaps, are thought to live

outside national parks, in more or less close contact with humans.

I'm here in north west India, in Rajasthan.

I've come here because it's a very similar situation to where we live -

there are a lot of hillocks around here,

surrounded by agriculture, people living everywhere.

And leopards.

No-one knows these leopards better than local naturalist Davey Singh.

I've been coming here every day, morning and evening.

-If I see a leopard, I get a high.

-Yeah.

It's like having a big old scotch. On the rocks.

For nearly ten years, Davey has been following one particular leopard.

Zara, her family, they have never disappointed me.

Once I see them, I'm very happy.

What does your wife think about you spending all this time here?

My wife knows my passion, that I'm mad over leopards,

and I can't do without seeing leopards every day.

It's rare to see a leopard so clearly, under any circumstances.

What's surprising though is how many of these cats seem to be

hanging out here, on this one hill.

-That split rock, you see?

-Yeah.

That very much looks like Zara's head.

One by one, more leopards come out to relax.

The standard line is that these are very solitary creatures.

Can you tell me how many leopards you've seen in one place?

-I've seen six here.

-Together?

Together.

-All hanging out together.

-All hanging out together.

It's great. It's like a pride of lions.

It is.

Perhaps leopards are more sociable than we've been led to believe.

It's fascinating to see an entire family relaxing so openly,

so close to human activity.

For local guys like Magarim,

the presence of leopards creates an obvious problem.

What's crazy to me is that people like Magarim seem more

worried about their cows and goats than their own safety.

When I asked him about humans, he says it hasn't happened,

he hasn't heard of it, and he's not worried about it.

For centuries,

this is probably how it's been with leopards across most of India.

A constant tussle over livestock, but few attacks on people.

Leopards are much more active after dark.

With two large cubs to feed, there's a good chance that Zara will

sneak down off the hill in search of a meal.

Livestock isn't always available,

but leopards are adept at surviving on small game like hares.

After a couple of hours, Zara appears without warning.

She's surprisingly close.

I try to read her body language.

She doesn't appear to be stalking us,

yet I well know what a leopard can do to a person, if it chooses.

What bothers me, and the big question is,

what makes a leopard turn bad?

Why do some leopards become man-eaters?

The leopards in this area are very, very friendly.

In fact, when a person steps down from a jeep,

they won't come towards you.

The moment they hear your footsteps, they tend to run away into the bush.

I have never had a man-eater.

For leopards, humans would be such easy prey.

Considering how soft and puny we are, it's remarkable

that most of them stick to eating livestock.

It seems to me that, in India,

an ancient and balanced relationship exists between humans and leopards.

And to upset this relationship, something definite has to change.

To find out why things go wrong, I leave Rajasthan,

and head north to the state of Uttarakhand.

When it comes to man-eaters, this place is in a league of its own.

The foothills of the Himalayas are truly spectacular,

but I'm not here to enjoy the scenery.

Ten days ago, in a remote settlement,

a five-year-old boy was killed.

SHE WAILS

The latest victim in a region long infamous for its deadly cats.

This one state has by far the highest concentration

of leopard attacks in India.

About 70 people are taken every year.

It was in these very valleys, nearly 100 years ago,

that pilgrims on their way to the holy shrines

at the source of the Ganges were also stopped by leopards.

Between 1918 and 1926,

one of these leopards, the man-eater Rudraprayag,

is said to have killed 125 people.

Its reign of terror was finally by a hunter called Jim Corbett.

Why these particular hills should be so cursed is a mystery.

But the numbers are pretty sobering.

HE SPEAKS HINDI

When local teacher maths teacher Latpuk Singhrowat

lost his ninth pupil to a leopard, he finally snapped,

and applied for a special permit to hunt the culprit.

By the time he got the go-ahead,

three more of his students had been eaten.

It took him several nights to get a clear shot,

and in the ten years since that first kill,

he's taken out a further 39 man-eaters.

In fact, he's now the go-to man whenever there's a problem.

And he appears to be keeping himself busy.

An almost unbearable number of the victims in these stories

are children.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

There's, uh, several extremely disturbing pictures

of some of the victims, and just out of respect for the families,

we would never show this to you, but it is pretty obvious that

the leopard has grabbed this particular victim by the throat

and dragged the child through the forest.

These are all things that are extremely difficult to look at.

What's so puzzling and so upsetting is why there are

so many attacks here.

In Rajasthan, there were none.

Is there now just too little left in these hills for leopards to hunt?

I can imagine how a hungry leopard might be drawn to a village,

in search of a meal.

But does this explain why so many humans are being attacked?

I'd expect them to come looking for cows and goats, not people.

To learn more about the circumstances of the latest attack,

I'm in the town of Gaucher.

It was here that the five-year-old boy was gabbed ten days ago,

and his relatives have agreed to talk.

It was only the next morning that the boy was finally found.

Perhaps for a leopard, there's just no difference

between a goat and a human.

There is, however, another possible explanation

for the tragic situation that exists here.

Poaching, to supply body parts and skins to South East Asia,

is happening on a massive scale.

And this may be more relevant than we realise.

New research on mountain lions in America shows that when

big cats are hunted intensively, it can actually increase conflict.

Shoot a resident adult and several younger animals tend to move in.

Being less experienced in the ways of people,

these feline teenagers are much more liable to cause trouble.

A leopard that's killed once may be more likely to return.

Latpuk certainly thinks so.

It seems obvious that the man-eating leopard of Gaucher has to be

shot before it strikes again,

yet as I set out with Latpuk to track the leopard that ate the boy,

there's a nagging question at the back of my mind.

How is it possible to identify the real culprit?

SHE SPEAKS HINDI

She heard a rock falling down, she saw a tail disappearing,

dogs barking hysterically.

Shooting the wrong cat won't just fail to solve the problem.

There's a good chance it will make it worse.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

At the edge of the village, the boy's uncle points us

to fresh leopard tracks, close to where his nephew was killed.

Latpuk claims that man-eaters only hunt between 6.00 and 8.00,

because that's when children are about.

In his eyes, any leopard that shows up during these hours is fair game.

That's the house, the one with the light on, where the boy was taken.

Beyond the village, the track climbs steeply.

There are likely to be several leopards in this area,

all known to each other.

This is where the leopard scratched.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

The problem is always trying to identify which is

the responsible animal.

Are they killing the right one?

DOGS BARK

There's some more tracks here.

Look at this. And that.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

From using the hind legs.

No clear paw prints are left at the scene of the attack,

and in any case, it's almost impossible to identify

an individual leopard from its tracks.

By 8.30, we still haven't found the leopard,

and Latpuk calls time.

The Gaucher man-eater is still out here, and I'm left in two minds.

I can understand people's fear, and their desire for justice,

but in the wider scheme of things, I wonder if all this shooting

is just creating more man-eaters and more misery.

I leave Uttarakhand with more questions than I came with.

600 miles south, in the state of Maharashtra,

science is starting to give us some much needed answers.

There's no jungle here at all.

For mile upon mile, it's just villages and fields.

But the sugar cane provides perfect cover.

And for an ambush hunter with broad tastes, there's plenty to eat.

In its own way, this densely settled farmland is a leopard's paradise.

Everybody thinks the leopards have to be in the jungle,

they can't be anywhere else, but nobody's told that to the leopards.

I've come here to meet Dr Vidya Arthreya, the only person

who's really studied leopards in a purely human landscape.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

It's her detective work

that solved a crucial piece of the man-eating puzzle.

The trouble began several years ago, when everyone decided

that the leopards here belonged in the jungle and had to be sent back.

The leopards were trapped from the sugar cane areas

and released in the forest.

106 leopards were captured in three years.

Within a week or so of those releases,

attacks on people started happening.

The whole year before that, there were no attacks,

and then there was this steep spike.

We had 25 attacks.

The leopards were going into houses, picking up children

and dragging them away.

In the whole of India, only the state of Uttarakhand was worse.

What's difficult to understand is why should just taking

a leopard from one place

and putting it in another place cause all these problems?

What effect would translocation have on a leopard?

It seems that the actual act of capturing the animal leads to stress.

People are around it, it gets injured.

Every leopard captured here suffered a terrible ordeal.

Highly stressed, the animals were taken up to 150 miles away

and literally dumped.

You take such an animal, and go put it in some forest?

It's never seen a forest in its life.

They don't know anything about that.

So they're screwed up.

Many of these release sites, they have their own leopards.

It is a hostile environment.

Rom, it's like picking you up and dropping you maybe in to Baghdad.

It just leads to a much more stressed out leopard,

in a place it doesn't know and they are hungry.

And the most common thing for them to find in India is humans.

I think that, to a very large extent, man-eaters are man-made.

This simple idea, that messing with leopards is what turns them bad,

is a fascinating thought.

But I haven't forgotten about my leopard back home,

and what it's capable of.

The presence of a predatory animal means that problems could happen.

The risk is never zero. But if you just let them be,

then the problems are actually very, very little.

Well, some people would make the argument,

if there's even a slight risk, then why not just wipe them all out?

It's not possible to wipe them all out.

When you start killing the animals,

that weakened territory is immediately filled up.

Other animals from up to 100, 200 kilometres away

come and stay in that area.

Whether we like it or not, leopards tend to disperse out of forests.

We don't have a choice.

The leopards are going to be living near humans,

and when you start killing them, the problem escalates.

The attempt to rid these farmlands of leopards

proved a tragic mistake for all.

As well as leading to 18 human deaths,

it also created dozens of orphaned and traumatised animals.

So how many leopards are here now?

At the moment we have 26 leopards that are not releasable.

Once they grow big, then they just don't know their own strength.

Sure.

Kartick Satyanarayan is co-founder of Wildlife SOS,

an outfit that cares for convicted man-eaters.

Trapping is a big problem, because the minute the leopard is caught,

-he's just going to go attack that trap cage like mad.

-Yeah.

To try and get away, and that's a huge problem because the trap cage

is metal, and you know, he just breaks all his teeth,

injures himself and just makes a complete mess of that leopard.

SHOUTING AND GROWLING

It's irreparably damaged.

Who's this?

This is Arjun. Sadly, he's a confirmed man-eater.

You can't stand in front of him

for more than a couple of minutes before he displays all his fangs.

He still, I think, hates people.

And of course, he's handsome as hell.

Animals like this certainly can't be released.

So what's this guy's story?

This is Shiva. He's been here about eight years now.

He would have probably been trapped in a very difficult situation.

Stoned, probably mobbed, partly lynched.

Then, got into a cage, and lived in a cage,

which is the size of a dining table,

for maybe three or four years before we got him into this.

He doesn't want to have anything more to do with human beings.

Unfortunately, I think there is going to be some collateral damage

when people clash with wildlife,

and that will result in places like this, lifetime care centres

where you have to keep animals that can't be released.

We don't want centres like this in the future.

I think there's got to be a lot of emphasis on getting

people to become more tolerant.

Across large areas of Maharashtra,

people are quietly adapting to the presence of big cats.

Practically everyone I meet here has a leopard story.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

Yet, they don't seem to be living in fear.

As you'd expect, the locals are pretty clued in.

Kids don't wander around after dark,

and many people fit their pet dogs with special protection.

That's a wicked looking collar you've got there.

Look at the spikes on this thing.

Man, I can just imagine a leopard trying to grab at either

the top or the bottom is going to have one very, very sore mouth.

Watch out for leopards, I mean, despite your collar.

You've got to be careful.

At times, the local attitude to leopards

goes way beyond mere tolerance.

They actually rescue cats that land in trouble.

Deep agricultural wells are one of the biggest pitfalls around here.

Leopards often fall into them while chasing dogs,

and fishing them out can take a lot of time and trouble.

LEOPARD ROARS

INDISTINCT SHOUTS

After an all-clear from the vet,

it'll be set free in its own territory.

It's what works best for both villagers and leopards alike.

There are over 500 people per square mile here,

and a density of leopards comparable to a national park.

So how do these cats adapt to living alongside so many of us?

When Vidya tells me there's a fresh kill right next to a village,

I'm eager to stake it out.

There's a chance I'll be able to see how a leopard reacts

to the presence of people.

It's pitch black,

but our thermal camera reveals every detail in the darkness.

DOGS BARK

Right now, the dogs are going at it.

It will be interesting to see when the dogs actually leave.

They might want to get the heck out of here.

Leopards are not the only large carnivores

thriving in this landscape.

A hyena cruises in along the main road.

Maybe it's got wind of the carcass, but it gives it a wide berth.

Moments later, a leopard emerges to claim its meal.

Oh, God.

These sugar cane leopards are real heavyweights,

larger even than many of their African cousins.

He's tucking right in.

I'm sure he can hear us.

INDISTINCT CHATTERING

He's gone away from the carcass now, he's lying down.

He's totally relaxed. He might even be asleep.

INDISTINCT CHATTERING

There's that footpath behind, there are two people walking on it.

He's got up.

-He's really close to the people

-He's very close to them.

Oh, my God.

They're so close! You know, it couldn't be...

I'm sure those people don't know that the leopard is just behind them.

No, they don't. They're walking right by.

Is he looking at them, or what?

I can't tell. He's certainly faced in that direction.

Here, have a look.

-He's, he's coming back to the kill.

-He's coming back?

-Yeah, yeah.

This leopard is clearly very used to people.

Having watched the pedestrians pass, he simply continues with his meal.

This is quite a revelation to me, I'll tell you that.

I've just never seen anything like it.

Watching all this makes me a lot more relaxed about leopards.

And with Vidya close behind,

I decide to take the experiment a step further.

The big cat immediately comes to check us out.

Once it's gone back to its meal, I creep slowly toward it,

armed only with my nightscope.

As long as I'm watching him, I feel very cool with him.

As soon as I look away, I'm not really quite sure where he is

and I don't want to turn my back on him.

MOTORBIKE APPROACHES

A motorbike just went by behind him. He didn't even look up.

He's hardly 40 feet away.

Doesn't seem to be worried about me at all, I'm in full view of him.

He's still feasting. God.

This is a very different kind of leopard here. Amazing.

These farmland leopards know how to blend in.

Yet there may be an even more jaw dropping example of co-existence.

For years, I've been hearing

almost unbelievable stories about leopards in cities.

Heaving with over 20 million people,

it's the last place you'd expect to find big cats.

Mumbai is India's biggest city,

and the fourth largest metropolis in the world.

Incredibly, it also has the highest density of wild leopards

anywhere on Earth.

This urban jungle is the ultimate test of their adaptability.

This is the northern most tip of Bombay Island.

North of here is a quite densely forested area,

and it's perfect leopard habitat,

and if they're going to come from anywhere,

I would think it would be there.

It was the late '70s

when I started hearing stories about leopards in the city.

Leopards taking dogs, taking goats.

It was much later

when we actually heard of people being killed by leopards here.

Mumbai's leopards live mostly within Sanjay Gandhi National Park,

a stretch of forest that's now been engulfed by concrete suburbs

and crowded slums.

It's around the outskirts of the park, along roads

and among dwellings, that people are most likely to encounter leopards.

THEY SPEAK HINDI

For the most part, the cats are looking for their usual takeaway.

A slum dog a week is enough to keep a leopard well fed.

With over 150,000 strays walking around the streets,

the city offers rich pickings.

The surest way to deter leopards

would be to clean up the garbage that attracts the dogs.

But maybe this isn't necessary.

I'm curious to find out if the city dwellers are as relaxed

about leopards on their doorsteps as people in the countryside.

Equipped with a torch and a nightscope,

I head into a kind of buffer zone

near the southern boundary of the park.

A lot of people live in this area,

and they're never far from a leopard.

DOGS BARK

THEY SPEAK HINDI

HE SPEAKS HINDI

He says that four leopards came by last night,

first one and then a female with two cubs,

and they were hanging out just a few feet in front of the door.

He says, "We're not frightened of them, they're not going to hurt us,

"but they will definitely come for the dogs".

DOGS WHINE AND BARK

HE SPEAKS HINDI

It gets pretty hot and stuffy inside,

so he sleeps outside every night, and a lot of other people do too.

People seem to be fairly laid back about leopards.

They invariably have their children sleeping between the adults.

DOGS BARK

The dogs are very important to them,

because they tell them when the leopards are around.

If they do hear the dogs, they'll quickly call the kids inside.

No-one here is complacent. They do take precautions.

The fact is, people have been attacked and killed, right here.

But there's no great furore to shoot the leopard.

DOGS BARK

Wow, the dogs are really going nuts now.

They're a bit hysterical.

There's obviously a leopard close by.

Fresh paw marks. Very fresh. Just look at the edge of the tracks,

they're just made a couple of minutes ago.

After just three hours of searching, I spot my first urban leopard.

She's lying in some fairly thick grass,

so it's not that easy to see her, but she's very calm.

She's staring at us. Hardly 40 or 50 feet away.

The city leopard looks as relaxed and confident as any I've seen.

She's in her own neighbourhood, in a world she knows,

which makes her a much safer animal.

Jungle leopards eat anything from buffalos down to termites.

In cities, the menu shifts to rats, dogs, rotting carcasses

and even hospital waste.

She's going in the other direction, and disappeared into the bushes.

I can't imagine Londoners or New Yorkers

being so cool about leopards on their streets.

As millions sleep, there are leopards here,

going about their business.

DOGS BARK

They're watching the world go by and hanging out on park benches.

But so long as we're not hassling them,

it just doesn't seem to be a big deal.

This is totally amazing.

What's particularly interesting about Maharashtra,

this state, is that the results of translocation have been

an increase in conflict - more people getting killed.

So the authorities are reluctant to do any translocation,

despite the fact that some human fatalities have taken place.

Increasing vigilance and doing their patrolling,

and of course warning people and getting people to learn to

live with animals like this could make a difference.

It may be working.

It's just incredible to me that a large predator like a leopard

can live amongst people, and in most cases, without any big problems.

For centuries,

these amazing cats have found ways to exploit our world.

Whether we like it or not,

I've seen that their versatility means they're here to stay.

Though living with leopards is never risk free,

it's only when we mess with them that they seem to bite back.

The other half of the story

is the remarkable willingness of ordinary people

to live alongside these big cats.

And for me, there's a big lesson here.

The future of animals like leopards

doesn't just depend on finding space in a crowded world.

Whether it's in my own back yard or anywhere else,

it also depends on people's capacity for tolerance.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd