The staff at Naini Tal Zoo had clearly attempted to provide at least some animals with reasonable living conditions (the tiger; the snow leopards, for example). But seven leopards in a cage roughly the area of a tennis court...
In December 2006, shortly after I left the Garhwal region of the Indian Himalaya, three young girls were killed and eaten by leopards (probably the same animal) within a week or so. I'd believed man-eating leopards could now be found only in the pages of books like those of Jim Corbett. I was wrong.
All content © 2008 Pete McGregor
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6 comments:
I love how tight this shot is, and in particular the tufts of fur and folds in the animal's neck are very exciting and satisfying somehow. As for the back story -- I don't suppose we will ever get it right with animals.
Thanks Emma. I did want to get away from the usual snarling leopard shot (I had plenty of those anyway). Sometimes, showing less reveals more.
I hate the way we don't respect the beauty and integrity of these animals - and yet here am I, on my blog, killing tiny, harmless, beautiful mice.
True, Frances. We confine leopards in zoos to gawk at for our own enjoyment; in many respects that seems to me far more open to criticism than the sometimes necessary killing of mice in a home (they can be far from harmless). I often wonder whether there's any sound basis for preferring one animal over another — leopards over mice, mice over ants, ants over nematodes, for example. Is it a matter of the degree of self-awareness; could there be some other rationally defensible argument; or, are our preferences simply human bias?
I partly recall a quote, PP, that we must assume that everything has a life which is of value to it...but, it's harder to acknowlege that about nematodes, true enough.
Frances, yes — it becomes even harder when thinking about organisms like Guinea worm.
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