01x03 - Episode 3

[bunniefuu]

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Leopard, the most

deadly of all apex predators.

Leopards are one of the most

calm of the large cat species.

Their secretive

nature and resilience

allows them to survive amidst

many human communities.

Sadly in many of

these landscapes,

human wealth is stored

in the form of livestock.

With that livestock being a

favorite prey of leopards.

It puts them in direct

conflict with the humans.

(dramatic music)

Hunting has become a

controversial practice

in modern times.

My name is Dan Cabela and

I'm traveling the globe

to explore the true impact

that hunting is having

on our remaining wild

landscapes.

This practice goes as far

back as human history can

remember,

but does it have a place in

modern conservation

Human wildlife conflict

is prevalent across Africa

in areas where people still

live with wild animals.

Leopards are often at the

heart of this conflict

their opportunistic nature,

leading them to prey

on the livestock of

tribes like the Maasai.

I'm spending some

time in Tanzania

a place where human wildlife

conflict is an everyday event.

Tanzania is one of

the last strongholds

of functional natural

ecosystems left in Africa,

and the ancestral home

to the Maasai Tribe.

This tribe has coexisted

with wildlife for centuries.

Maasai are true pastoralist

Traditionally nomadic by nature.

They follow the rains with

their vast herds of livestock.

They have truly maintained

a tribal culture.

One which has been shaped

by a harsh existence in

an unforgiving landscape.

As a westerner it

is easy to think

that a leopard should be

protected at all costs.

But to a Maasai herdsmen

the leopard represents a threat.

They see them as vermin,

much as an American sheep

rancher looks at a coyote.

- (speaking in foreign language)

A leopard's just jumped

and grabbed the guy's goat.

Must be another sort of

conflict situation, I guess.

These people here lose

a hell of a lot of goats

and sheep, I suppose.

And the occasional

calf to leopard.

And I hate to know

how many goats

are taken each year by leopard.

Probably it runs

into the hundreds.

Which in some ways is

leopard's doing their own,

but can't take temptation

away from them.

(jeep rumbling)

- So is this an

unusual situation

or does this happen often?

- The livestock

- This happens a lot Dan.

You could ask any of these

herders are out here,

there a leopard and they'll

all say, yeah in that valley

or another person would say

yes, over in that valley.

You could easily say,

well over a hundred goats

and sheep would be

taken by a leopard

in this area every year.

Maybe a small goat might be

worth about $50 or something.

The equivalent now that

adds up quite quickly

amongst the community

find a big value there.

- [Dan] On our

way we come across

some Maasai herdsman and

stop to talk to them.

This nice green fleshy

grass, which I'll show

but that's also why

these people are here

with their sheep and goats.

Anyways have a look at it.

Lot of vibrance of life

around here at the moment.

- (speaking in foreign language)

- (indistinct) marveling

their goats and sheep.

So day before yesterday

there was an old man

looking after the goats

and this leopard came and one

of the warriors came along

and basically almost

had a competition

and it still took the goat.

So yeah.

(speaking Kiswahili)

I'm just telling, telling

him our sympathies.

- Where there is livestock

in the same landscape

as big cats.

There's going to be conflict.

(truck rumbling)

- Let's chat to these guys.

- (speaking in foreign language)

- (speaking in foreign language)

- Okay.

So he says, he says around

about midday sometime

leopard grabbed one

of his goats, and so.

- Where's it now?

- Down there in the bushes on my

so we'll go and have a look.

- (speaking foreign language)

- So he's saying that is

actually, this happen every day.

I suppose every day

means frequently

but he says he's

lost two goats today.

He doesn't know where

the other one is.

- [Dan] When livelihoods

are threatened,

conflicts are resolved

one way or another

often ending in

communities taking matters

into their own hands.

(people yelping)

(people singing and whistling)

(people celebrating)

- One of the factors

that makes managing

this conflict so difficult.

Is the fact that

we know so little

about leopard as a species.

One such area where

leopard populations

and movements aren't

well understood

is the Zambezi

Delta in Mozambique.

(dramatic music)

The Cabela Family Foundation

has undertaken to learn

more about leopards

in the Zambezi Delta

to help to make

better conservation management

choices going forward.

Our hope is to collar the first

ever leopards in Mozambique.

By undertaking to collar

several individuals.

The hope is that science can

inform conservation management

by learning more

about the species.

(safari music)

- So for the past few

weeks, we've been searching

for female leopard tracks,

with the goal of trying

to dart and collar

a female leopard in

the Zambezi Delta.

- Hey copy that,

we'll do that now.

So we're in Mozambique at

the moment in Bacardi Living.

And we're just getting ready

to go out tonight to

look for some leopards.

- [Willem] And so the way we

do this is we use vehicles.

So at nighttime, when

the leopards are active

we drive roads that

have been cared.

- [Dr. Ryan Van Deventer]

So we pretty much drag

the roads the whole

of this afternoon

just to smooth them out.

So it just enables us to

pick up tracks easier.

So we gonna go out and see

if we can find any spua.

If we do find

something pretty fresh

we'll bring the dogs in, get

them to track the animal,

push it up into a tree.

We'll dart it in the tree.

And we just wanna get some

collars on these animals.

A little bit of an enigma,

very elusive animal.

(truck rumbling)

- Good evening, Dan.

- Evening. Good

to see you again.

- Yes. Always is.

- See, you got

the team together.

- Yes. The hounds all loaded.

We sweeped all the

roads this afternoon.

We'll go out.

Let's go and try and

find a fresh track.

So we just gonna drive slowly,

check the baits

that we've put out.

As soon as we get a track

we'll identify whether

it's a male or female.

If it's a female,

we're good to go.

And then we can chase it in the

tree and put that collar on.

- That sounds excellent.

- Let's go.

- Ready Dan?

(truck starting)

- [Dan] Our hope is to collar

the first ever

leopards in Mozambique.

Catching a leopard

is no easy task.

First the team needs to find

a leopard track and follow it.

But then they need

to get it in the tree

so that the vet can dart and

immobilize the cat safely.

The team searches

hundreds of miles of road,

for a suitable leopard

for the hounds to follow.

- So seven in length.

But I think this is that

- [worker] Female.

- Female. Yeah.

- [Worker] Is this

tonight? Yeah.

- So the back paw is much

longer than the front paw.

(dogs barking)

- We've got a couple of

leading hounds as in any pack.

And you need a few.

If you don't know your

hounds by their call

then you need the collars

to look at the GPS to

to see which hound is which.

so 70% of the hounds I

can distinguish on call,

but some of the other

like the young girls

we don't know yet.

So those ones we need

to follow on the GPS.

- Funny. Yeah.

- So we're trying to catch

some females to put collars

on them.

So we're gonna

follow the tracks.

The hounds are gonna

tell us how fresh it is.

Get the hounds on the

track and we're gonna try

and chase the cat up the tree

and then put a dart in her

and then catch it with the

net and put the collar on.

(speaking in foreign language)

(hounds barking)

(man whistling)

(speaking foreign language)

(hound howling)

(man whistling)

(dramatic music)

(hounds howling)

(water splashing)

(hounds barking)

- The drug we're using is

something called Xyliotol.

It's probably safer for her and

just safer when they come to

when there's more

people around so.

And then we'll just

have to sit with her

while she wakes up again.

(g*n clicks)

(dog barking)

(dart firing)

(leopard hissing)

- She's coming.

(men yelling)

(dogs barking)

(leopard making

distressed noises)

(leopard growling)

that will inform the

conservation of the

species as a whole.

This leopard research

is taking place

in an open system

that is protected

by the funds generated

through hunters.

(leopard growling)

- [Dr. Ryan Van Deventer] Once

the animal has been darted

- And will take measurements.

- 64.0

- We take a

photograph of the mit

and the right hand side

of each individual.

And what that provides us

with is identification.

We also insert a microchip

into the back neck

of each individual

that we collar.

And then that provides us with

an accurate identification

code for each animal.

(dart firing)

(leopard hissing and falling)

- She's coming

(men yelling)

(dogs barking)

(leopard growling)

(triumphant music)

- [Dan] Once the

leopard is darted

the team uses the

opportunity to gather samples

to aid in research before

fitting the collar.

(triumphant music)

- So then you fit the GPS

VHF collar on the individual.

What these collars

provide us with

is a wealth of information.

What it does is it provides us

with active tracking abilities.

So once that animal is movable

you can actually

track that individual

with the telemetry signal

as part of the collar.

But what it also does

is it's got a GPS unit

and that unit transmits

to the satellite

and it provides us remotely

from the computer in the office

to give us a ping on the way

that the individual is moving.

When it can also tell

us if it's a female

and she's starting to have cubs

she'll start to move in

a very very confined area

usually returning

to the same position

in a star shaped pattern

which is typical of when

they're out hunting,

coming back in,

feeding their cubs,

and going out again

later and coming back in.

- [Dan] Science can perform

best practices in conservation

and help to ensure a

future for the species.

- [Dr. Ryan Van Deventer]

We are only at the

beginning stages of our

leopard collaring program

and with each individual

collar we end up learning

a lot more about leopards as

a whole and their ecosystem.

The more we know the

more we can manage

and the more we can conserve.

- [Dan] You can only

manage what you understand.

While there are no easy answers

to solving

human-wildlife conflict,

knowledge is what

enables convservationists

to manage areas where humans

and wildlife live together

as effectively as possible.

(uplifting music)