Quantifying Wire Snares as a Threat to Leopards in Karnataka, India

Abstract

Though large felids are flagship species for wildlife conservation they are threatened due to various anthropogenic impacts. Mapping spatial patterns and quantification of threats to large felines can help conservation planning and resource allocation. The Leopard Panthera pardus, is categorized as Vulnerable by the IUCN as it faces a variety of threats. However, quantified data on the threats faced by leopards is scant. Hunting of wildlife using wire snares is one of the severest threats in India and elsewhere. Snaring, one of the simplest and most effective hunting techniques impacts other non-target species like the leopard. In this study, we document the spatial and temporal trends of snaring of leopards from India. Through content analysis of newspapers and news portals for the period January 2009-December 2020, we documented 113 incidents of leopards caught in snares of which 59.3% (5.5 leopards/year) resulted in mortality of leopards. Most snares (97.5%) were set to catch wild prey. Of the 84 incidents for which exact location details were available, the proportion of leopards caught in snares (54.7%, n = 46) and resulted in mortality (50%) in human-dense areas was significantly higher depicting an elevated threat from snares in these landscapes. Results from Generalised Additive Model indicated that snaring incidences increased with human population density. Percentage of protexted area to the geographical area within a district had little impact on the number of snaring incidents. The study results could help threat monitoring and conservation programs for leopards, especially outside the protexted area system.

Potential risk zone for anthropogenic mortality of carnivores in Gandaki Province, Nepal

“…to escalate with increasing human footprints and human-associated impacts on the landscape (Gubbi et al, 2014(Gubbi et al, , 2021Hill et al, 2020).…”

“…The CCA performed in this study also represented positive association between human population and high‐risk zone (km 2 ) for carnivore casualty ( p < .05), supporting earlier findings. Anthropogenic mortality in mammals has been found to escalate with increasing human footprints and human‐associated impacts on the landscape (Gubbi et al, 2014 , 2021 ; Hill et al, 2020 ). Results of our study also reinforce positive association between human population and number of carnivore casualty.…”

Low-Cost Forensics Reveal High Rates of Non-lethal Snaring and Shotgun Injuries in Zambia's Large Carnivores

“…Leopards may be less likely to survive an encounter with a snare (Swanepoel et al, 2015;Loveridge et al, 2020). In India, only three of 113 (2.7%) snared leopards escaped from the snare wire on their own; 59 were dead in the snare, while the remaining 51 were detected and rescued (Gubbi et al, 2021). In LV, two adult leopards found dead had snare wires tightened around their torsos; the resultant wounds had penetrated their abdominal cavities and exposed their intestines (Zambia Lion Project, unpublished data).…”

Factors influencing survival of tiger and leopard in the high-altitude ecosystem of the Nilgiris, India

“…This is a common trapping practice since snares are easy to setup and place in the animal's path (Aziz et al 2017). Although snares are generally used to trap wild herbivores, they can also cause serious injuries or mortality to unintended targets (Gubbi et al 2021). Reports of killing tigers/leopards by poisoning the left-out carcass exist from many localities (Gopal et al 2010;Tilson et al 2010;Kalaivanan et al 2011;Saif and MacMillan 2016;Aziz et al 2017).…”

“…The conflicts with bigger carnivores can be fatal, ending in the retaliatory killing of predators (Wang and Macdonald 2006;Gurung et al 2008;Inskip and Zimmermann 2009;Singh et al 2015a, b). According to research from various landscapes, the rate of tiger and leopard mortalities varies, which may lead to a decline in the carnivore population in the landscape (Athreya et al 2011;Singh et al 2015a, b;Gubbi et al 2021). Conflicts are primarily caused by predators' reliance on livestock due to a lack of wild prey, as well as inter-and intra-species competition (Bhattarai and Fischer 2014).…”