Ran across this from journalist Matt Taibbi:
From the town of Uri in the province of Kashmir, Al-Jazeera reports that 12 children have gone missing in recent months due to a spate of leopard attacks in a worsening “man-wild conflict,” seen more and more as formerly uninhabited areas erode. “There used to be a buffer zone between the forests and the human habitation but now all that has vanished,” a warden said.
This, of course, brings to mind Jim Corbett’s epic campaigns a century ago to end the reign of terror of a number of man-eating tigers and leopards on the Indian subcontinent. The Panar Leopard alone was responsible for some 400 deaths.
John Seerey-Lester depicted one of Jim Corbett’s nerve-straining hunts.
There can be no more terrifying primal threat than for a predator cat stalking you and your family. And, of course, there is a certain tragic element in recognizing that human expansion continues to narrow habitat, increasing the likelihood of fatal encounters that naturally create an impetus to destroy the perpetrators.
Matthew says
If Jim Corbett was alive today he’d probably be pillared as an evil big game hunter without any concern with the human lives the cat takes.
It is of course a problem with human encroachment on wild life areas. The neighborhood I live in called Fox Hill we really do have a lot of foxes who have gotten used to living among humans and are pretty good at avoiding contact. I don’t think a big cat could do that.
Anybody here who hasn’t read Corbett’s Man-Eaters of Kamoun should.
lane batot says
One big cat that can do that, and DOES, is the leopard! They are living IN and around many large modern cities in both Asia and Africa! They mostly kill dogs, small livestock, rats, etc., but occasionally snatch a human. Just check Youtube for “leopards killing dogs” for some eerie video caught on security cameras of this phenomenon. And here in the U. S. A., some cougars are getting purty savvy at living cheek-to-jowl with humans in developed areas–like the cougars that live in and around Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and the cougars in and around Boulder, Colorado!
Matthew says
I did not know that.
lane batot says
I’m a critter geek. It’s just what I must do……Anyhoo–there’s a now famous Nat Geo photo, taken by a camera trap during a study of the urban cougars in Los Angeles, showing one of their radio collared cougars stalking by at night with the “HOLLYWOOD” sign in the background!!
Joe says
I’ve thought of this often when seeing bear encounters on the news. When a black bear wanders through a neighborhood, they aren’t in our territory, we’ve simply expanded into theirs. Thankfully they seem to be spooked off pretty easily, though their larger cousins up north and in Yellowstone are a different matter!
lane batot says
I don’t think there are any more Jim Corbetts around, alas. Nor Kenneth Andersons. Who was Kenneth Anderson, you say? Think Jim Corbett, in Northern India, but instead, Kenneth Anderson in Southern India, a generation later. I think you’ll discover more about Anderson next Blog Tithe(ahem!)…..And both these hunters really loved the big cats, often regretted having to kill them when they turned man-eater. Tragic all around for everyone–humans and the cats(or any large, potentially dangerous animals living in the proximity of humans……)
JimC says
As always, Lane, you have me intrigued. Thank you.
Matthew says
Reading Man-Eaters of Kamoun makes his love clear.
Natty Bumpo says
I was pretty happy with the Ghost and the Darkness film from the 90’s. Not Oscar level material but it wasn’t meant to be. But for folks like me period pieces like that are small treasures to enjoy.
Anyhow, later I got to see the stuffed Tsavo lions at the Field museum in Chicago and I was really surprised at how small those lions were. Still big cats but not what I had in my mind they would be after learning about their exploits.
A cat of any size is a dangerous thing!
JimC says
Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War) wrote an interesting book about the Tsavo lions. Ghosts of Tsavo. Explores the mysteries of the lions — their taxonomy and behavior. Been years since I read it, but it was worthy.
lane batot says
I LOVED “The Ghost And The Darkness”–saw it in the theater when it came out–got a VHS copy, then my present DVD, and I have the CD Soundtrack, too! Great soundtrack! HOWEVER, despite getting some facts dead on, they got a lot of stuff very, very wrong, too(but it was still a great movie!), compared to the actual history….. If you look at the old photos of the two maneless lions(manelessness a not uncommon characteristic of male lions around Tsavo) right after Patterson shot them, they look HUGE! No doubt the stuffed versions in Chicago shrunk somewhat during the preservation process…..I once read someone comparing dogs and cats as pets/companions, championing the dogs, saying if their dog was gigantic in size, it would still be his friend and companion, but if a cat were that big, it would eat it’s human!….I’ve read Caputo’s book, too, as well as several others on the subject, including, of course, Patterson’s own account! Patterson definitely didn’t have the love for the great cats that either Corbett or Anderson did–to him, they were just “savage brutes”!