Leopard Behaviour - The mountain warrior giving me hope

Proof of life cameras in tough terrain a focus meaning a lot to me personally

This video is still the best I have of Thagu. It was taken at about 3500m on a camera we were testing throughout monsoon at that altitude. While I have several stills and some footage since, this clip is the one of the mountain warrior that for me encapsulates his secret life.

I did a physically punishing rush trip to get cameras into Thagu's lower territory a few days ago and shortly it's about doing the same but to much higher, above 4000m. This requires careful planning as landslides in the Himalaya during monsoon not only limit human movement but can easily take out cameras. I'm very careful these days regarding tech placement as every device is worth more than gold to me in what it can help us do in the context of early warning systems (EWS), #AntiSnare and behavioural studies.

Because of this hectic last few weeks with regard to rewilding infrastructure needed and #AntiSnare action, we've got a little behind with EWS deployment. I'm taking a deep breath and getting that sorted out now, it's always nerve wracking when devices aren't where I want them to be when children are at risk. I really hope that by now people reading these Substacks have a much better understanding of the ramifications of attacks by leopards on children, the danger to the kids and the leopards themselves. I thank those who have responded in kind with support for LeopardEye.

This is where Thagu gives me hope. He has never attacked a human. He has taken livestock, his huge size meaning he has even successfully hunted adult yaks and buffalo and there has been retaliation killing of leopards in his area. I'll be in a better position to tell his story, to write of his behaviour, in a few weeks when proof of life cameras have done their work in an area he shares with snow leopard and for the first time we may even get live streaming as Thagu activates some new tech I've been working on. These devices can be a huge breakthrough in monitoring wildlife and habitat in the high Himalaya, as even Earth's mightiest mountains are exposed to human impact in the form of climate change and biodiversity loss.

So Thagu's behaviour means a lot to me personally and our plans going forward. I desperately want to write about good things, something which has not been easy to do of late as a world of not so good news keeps pushing hard.

On that, in social media lately, I've mentioned the Gaza situation. That may seem incongruent to my work but it's far from it, I hope people understand that. Human decency is at a premium when it comes to coexistence and the plight of the children of Gaza has saddened me deeply especially after a conversation with a colleague working on counter trafficking in that region. Some of the things I heard in that talk left me numb as information clarification from that someone I trust came through.

I wrote to my children and said please hug your children, my grandchildren. In a few weeks I turn sixty five and while there are still many steep slopes to climb in the quest for solutions to aid coexistence, I feel disillusioned we have all allowed Gaza, and it's not the only crisis, to become what it is.

I'll continue to act in the hope we can make the world a better place, glimpses of the secret life of Thagu will ease my soul, I'll update when that happens and again, I thank those part of the journey, you do find out who your true friends are when the lives of children and leopards are at stake.