From our partner in Indonesia in the Javan Leopard release program (wanicare foundation): Up-date leopards Sawal and Dimas.
“Still no positive news to tell about the release of Sawal and Dimas. We are still waiting for news and… results from the camera traps the rangers of Ciremai National Park promised us to locate in the mid area of the national Park. We hope we can release at least 1 of the leopards there, but first we need to be sure this area is suitable for another leopard. The whole release program takes too long and it is very frustrating. Next to the fact that there seem not to be any suitable areas left in Java to release leopards, we are also depending on others like National Parks, Forestry Dept. and investigators which doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. This makes it very complicated for us.
Besides that the situation of the Javan leopard in general is still very sad and it only becomes worse. Human conflicts are still continuing and the fact that there are so many human-leopard conflicts in Java the last years, is a sign that there’s not much space left, not much of the natural habitat so this makes it even more difficult to actually release “our” leopards but we will do our utmost to make this happen.
Although the situation for Dimas and Sawal is not ideal, they are both still fine. Last week they got their yearly vaccination and they are in good health, still very wild and shy towards humans. What makes it even harder for a relocation of leopards, as it seemed to be the case in India, the leopards get stressed and more aggressive, esp. to humans, because of a relocation to new and unknown habitat. Not easy to release wild cats back into their natural habitat, but for both Wanicare and Wild Cats World this is the ultimate mission!
We keep you up-dated and thank you all for your support !”
Hi.
Thank you for the new update. I wish it was a bit more optimistic but I understand the situation is not easy and you will only release the leopards where you are sure it’s safe for them (which is something I totally understand and support). It is just sad how little natural habitat is left on Java for the leopards (and other animals) nowadays. I believe the whole situation must be really frustrating for you but that only makes it more admirable in my eyes that you just refuse to give up. I can’t help but imagine that the leopard in the picture on this page must be thinking something along the lines of ‘I don’t want to cause problems to people, I just wish to live in my forests like we leopards have for so long, do people really want the whole island for themselves?, don’t we matter at all?’.
Well, at least it’s nice to hear the boys are doing relatively fine for now and remain wild and ready to be released where they belong. I remain confident you will keep doing all you can to make the release happen sooner or later. Wish you best of luck when dealing with all the organizations and people on whom you depend on with this project!