Leopards still roam wild throughout many parts of India, including the Himalayan foothills of Garhwal and Kumaon which together make up Uttarakhand. While I travelled in that region in late 2006 I wondered whether I might glimpse a leopard; later, on returning to the lowlands of Rajasthan and reading a newspaper that reported the killing of a young girl by a leopard in Uttarakhand (known then as Uttaranchal), I thought maybe glimpsing a leopard isn't as exhilarating an experience for people who live in close proximity to wild leopards.
This one, however, was captive at Naini Tal zoo, where it shared a small enclosure with too many others.
[7 December 2006, Canon 20D, 300 mm f4 L IS, ISO 200, 1/160s at f8]
All content © 2012 Pete McGregor
Sadly (and probably wrongly) my sympathies are all with the leopards, and the tigers, and the... There are so many more of us than of them and we are much more likely to make them extinct than them us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful but sad. Seeing truly wild animals in captivity hurt. I'm with E's child: my sympathies are with wild animals. -Maureen
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child & Maureen, you're not alone in that attitude.
ReplyDeleteThe only species capable of threatening us with extinction is us.
I feel that way about mountain lions here in the Sierra foothills. I once thought I wouldn't mind seeing one, but now that I've seen their scat out on our local trails, crossing paths with one doesn't have the same pull.
ReplyDeleteWhat we humans have done to the planet and all the living things on it is unconscionable. Look at that leopard's eyes.
Robin, the statistics suggest you have nothing whatsoever to feel anxious about, but I suspect that's not much comfort. I do highly recommend Jack Turner's brilliant book, The Abstract Wild. Chapter 3 discusses his attitudes to and experiences with mountain lions, and I suspect you'll find plenty of common ground.
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