Zanzibar leopard
| Zanzibar leopard | ||||||||||||
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Stuffed specimen in the Zanzibar Museum |
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| Panthera pardus adersi | ||||||||||||
| ( Pocock , 1932) |
The Zanzibar leopard ( Panthera pardus adersi ) is a controversial subspecies of the leopard that is endemic to Unguja , the main island of the Zanzibar archipelago . It was believed to be extinct 25 years before an Animal Planet film team managed to film one.
features
Compared to the animals of the mainland, Zanzibar leopards were a little smaller and their basic color was a little lighter. The dark rosettes were broken up into individual spots lying close to one another, the smaller rosettes only being indicated as yellow-brown spots. The spots on the paws were reduced to small, tightly spaced speckles. The tail was likely a little shorter than other subspecies. The skull was smaller than that of other leopard subspecies, the upper jaw and snout were narrower and the crest less pronounced.
Way of life
Zanzibar leopards were the largest predators found on Unguja. Their behavior in the wild has never been scientifically studied.
Tracking and inventory
Humans and leopards on Unguja probably increasingly came into conflict with the increase in the island's population from the second half of the 19th century, with the leopards attacking and killing domestic animals and occasionally also humans. In popular belief, leopards were often seen as the trained companions of sorcerers who were sent by them to harm the people concerned. This belief seems to be relatively young, in older legends the leopard is referred to as a royal animal. On the basis of the attacks and the ideas outlined, the leopards and their supposed owners were deliberately pursued. In 1919 the British Protectorate placed the leopards under protection and forbade their killing, as it was to be regarded as useful rather than dangerous, without addressing the fears of the population, which the decree subsequently largely ignored. In 1950, this decree was supplemented by the possibility of an exemption for the killing of animals considered dangerous, which did little to change the intensity of the persecution. With independence, the hunt for leopards was increasingly organized and promoted by the state. The last confirmed sighting of a Zanzibar leopard was in 1980, but according to interviews with local people, leopards were still seen between 1990 and 1996, and National Hunters' documentation records hunted animals until the mid-1990s. In 1997 and 2003, zoological investigations and camera traps could no longer detect any leopards. A stuffed copy is in the Zanzibar Museum. The holotype is in the Natural History Museum , London. The Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology has two copies (incl. MCZ 40953).
Individual evidence
- ^ Zanzibar Leopard Captured on Camera, Despite Being Declared Extinct
- ↑ RI Pocook: The Leopards of Africa . In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . tape 102 , no. 2 , 1932, p. 543-591 (English). ( Initial description )
- ^ MT Walsh, HV Goldman: Killing the King: The Demonization and Extermination of the Zanzibar Leopard / Tuer le roi: la diabolisation et l'extermination du leopard de Zanzibar . In: Edmond Dounias, Elisabeth Motte-Florac, Margaret Dunham (eds.): 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? Éditions de l'IRD (Institut de recherché pour le développement), Paris 2007, p. 1133–1182 (English, also in French).
Web links
- The Zanzibar Leopard - Anthropology and Conservation in Zanzibar - Martin Walsh's blog on the Zanzibar Leopard with a collection of publications