Zanzibar leopard

The Zanzibar leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) is a leopard population on Unguja Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, Tanzania that is considered extirpated due to persecution by local hunters and loss of habitat. It was the island's largest terrestrial carnivore, and apex predator until 2002.[1][2] Increasing conflict between people and leopards in the 20th century led to the demonization of the Zanzibar leopard and determined attempts to exterminate it. Efforts to develop a leopard conservation program in the mid-1990s were shelved when wildlife researchers concluded that there was little prospect for the population's long-term survival.[3] In 2018, a leopard was recorded by a camera trap, thus renewing hopes for the population's survival.[4]

Zanzibar leopard
Mounted specimen in the Zanzibar Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Species:
P. pardus
Subspecies:
P. p. pardus
Trinomial name
Panthera pardus pardus
(Pocock, 1932)

Taxonomy

The Zanzibar leopard was described as a leopard subspecies by Reginald Innes Pocock, who proposed the scientific name Panthera pardus adersi in 1932.[5] Following molecular genetic analysis of leopard samples, it was subsumed to the African leopard P. p. pardus in 1996.[6][7] However, some authors continue to use P. p. adersi.[8]

Evolutionary history

The evolutionary history of the Zanzibar leopard parallels that of other endemic species on Unguja, including the Zanzibar servaline genet and the Zanzibar red colobus. It is thought to have evolved in isolation from the African leopard since at least the end of the Last Ice Age, when the island was separated from mainland Tanzania by rising sea levels. The founder effect and adaptation to local conditions produced a smaller leopard than its continental relatives, and one whose rosettes have partially disintegrated into spots.[9][10]

Behaviour and ecology

Very little is known about the Zanzibar leopard's behaviour and ecology.[11] It has never been studied in the wild, and a living leopard was last sighted in the early 1980s.[12] Most zoologists have since presumed the Zanzibar leopard to be extinct or very nearly so.[3]

Only six skins were deposited at museums, including the type specimen in the Natural History Museum, London, and a much-faded mounted specimen in the Zanzibar Museum.[2] However, Zanzibar government statistics indicate that leopards were still being killed by hunters in the mid-1990s, and islanders continue to report sightings and livestock predation.[1]

Extirpation
Close-up of the head

Descriptions of the leopard and its habits by rural Zanzibaris are characterized by the widespread belief that witches keep leopards and send them to harm or harass villagers. This belief includes elaborate ideas about how witches breed and train leopards to do the evil bidding. With these ideas, local farmers explain predation by leopards, and more generally also their appearance "out of place" in the vicinity of farms and villages.[13]

The growth of human population and agriculture in the 20th century was largely responsible for this state of affairs, as people encroached on leopard habitat and prey base. Increasing conflict between humans and leopards led to a series of campaigns to exterminate the latter. These campaigns were localized at first, but became island-wide after the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, when a combined anti-witchcraft and leopard-killing campaign was launched under the leadership of a witchfinder.[14] The long-term result of this campaign and the subsequent classification of the leopard as "vermin" brought the leopard population to the brink of extinction.[11] However, alleged leopard sightings are still being reported, and islanders believe that the Zanzibar leopard is still alive.[15] By the mid-1990s, the Zanzibar leopard population was considered extinct.[16]

Conservation

A leopard conservation program was drafted by the CARE-funded Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Project, but abandoned in 1997 when wildlife researchers failed to find evidence for the leopard. Local wildlife officials, however, remained more optimistic about the leopard's survival, and some Zanzibaris have proposed approaching alleged leopard keepers in order to ask them to display their leopards to paying visitors. Villagers sometimes offer to take tourists or researchers to see "domesticated" leopards in return for cash, but so far none of these "kept leopard chases" has been known to end in a successful sighting.[12][17][18]

These conflicting perceptions of the Zanzibar leopard's status and the possibility of its conservation have yet to be reconciled, presenting a dilemma that has been highlighted by researchers.[19][20][21][22]

See also

Leopard subspecies: African leopard  • Amur leopard  • Arabian leopard  • Anatolian leopard  • Indian leopard  • Indochinese leopard  • Javan leopard  • Persian leopard  • Sri Lankan leopard  • Panthera pardus spelaea

References
  1. Goldman, H. V. & Walsh, M. T. (2002). "Is the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) Extinct?". Journal of East African Natural History. 91 (1/2): 15–25. doi:10.2982/0012-8317(2002)91[15:ITZLPP]2.0.CO;2.
  2. Walsh, M. T. & Goldman, H. V. (2008). "Updating the Inventory of Zanzibar Leopard Specimens". Cat News. 49: 4–6.
  3. Stuart, C. & Stuart, T. (1997). A Preliminary Faunal Survey of South-eastern Unguja (Zanzibar) with Special Emphasis on the Leopard Panthera pardus adersi. Loxton, South Africa: African-Arabian Wildlife Research Centre.
  4. Li, J. (2018). "Zanzibar Leopard Captured on Camera, Despite Being Declared Extinct". Inside Edition. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  5. Pocock, R. I. (1932). "The Leopards of Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 102 (2): 543–591. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1932.tb01085.x.
  6. Miththapala, S.; Seidensticker, J. & O'Brien, S. J. (1996). "Phylogeographic Subspecies Recognition in Leopards (P. pardus): Molecular Genetic Variation". Conservation Biology. 10 (4): 1115–1132. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10041115.x.
  7. Uphyrkina, O.; Johnson, E.W.; Quigley, H.; Miquelle, D.; Marker, L.; Bush, M. & O'Brien, S. J. (2001). "Phylogenetics, genome diversity and origin of modern leopard, Panthera pardus" (PDF). Molecular Ecology. 10 (11): 2617–2633. doi:10.1046/j.0962-1083.2001.01350.x. PMID 11883877. S2CID 304770.
  8. Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2019). "Classifying, Domesticating and Extirpating the Zanzibar Leopard, a Transgressive Felid". Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift: 205–219.
  9. Pakenham, R.H.W. (1984). The Mammals of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Harpenden: Pakenham.
  10. Kingdon, J. (1989). Island Africa: The Evolution of Africa's Rare Animals and Plants. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  11. Walsh, M. T. & Goldman, H. V. (2003). "The Zanzibar Leopard Between Science and Cryptozoology". Nature East Africa. 33 (1/2): 14–16.
  12. Swai, I. S. (1983). Wildlife Conservation Status in Zanzibar (M.Sc. dissertation). Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam.
  13. Goldman, H. V. & Walsh, M.T. (1997). A Leopard in Jeopardy: An Anthropological Survey of Practices and Beliefs which Threaten the Survival of the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi) (Report). Zanzibar Forestry Technical Paper No. 63, Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Project. Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar. Retrieved 2011-05-29.
  14. Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2007). "Killing the King: The Demonization and Extermination of the Zanzibar Leopard". In Dounias, E.; Motte-Florac, E.; Dunham, M. (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?]. Paris: Éditions de l’IRD. pp. 1133–1182.
  15. Walsh, M. & Goldman, H. (2012). "Chasing imaginary leopards: Science, witchcraft and the politics of conservation in Zanzibar". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 6 (4): 727–746. doi:10.1080/17531055.2012.729778. S2CID 143598792.
  16. Nowell, K. & Jackson, P. (1996). "Leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758)" (PDF). Wild Cats: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group. pp. 44–47.
  17. Marshall, S. (1994). The Status of the Zanzibar Leopard. SIT Tanzania & Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
  18. Selkow, B. (1995). A Survey of Villager Perceptions of the Zanzibar Leopard. SIT Tanzania & Commission for Natural Resources, Zanzibar.
  19. Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2007). Human-Wildlife Conflict, Unequal Knowledge and the Failure to Conserve the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi). Felid Biology and Conservation Conference, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. University of Oxford, 17–21 September 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-23.CS1 maint: location (link)
  20. Goldman, H.V. & Walsh, M.T. (2008). When Culture Threatens the Conservation of Biological Diversity: The Tragic Case of the Zanzibar Leopard (Panthera pardus adersi). Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World: Lessons for Global Policy, Thirteenth Annual Symposium of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. American Museum of Natural History, New York, 2–5 April 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-23.CS1 maint: location (link)
  21. Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2012). "Chasing Imaginary Leopards: Science, Witchcraft and the Politics of Conservation in Zanzibar". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 6 (4): 727–746. doi:10.1080/17531055.2012.729778. S2CID 143598792.
  22. Walsh, M.T.; Goldman, H.V. (2017). "Cryptids and credulity: The Zanzibar leopard and other imaginary beings". In Hunt, S. (ed.). Anthropology and Cryptozoology: Exploring Encounters with Mysterious Creatures. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 54–90. doi:10.4324/9781315567297. ISBN 9781315567297.
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