Wildbuzz | When trees flower with rosettes

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The Shivalik foothills sport trees galore but leopards don’t need to climb them too often. Therefore, when wildlife conservationists, Amrit Pal and Nikhil Sanger, glimpsed the odd leopard holed up on Shivalik trees, the spectacle constituted a rarity of big cat behaviour.

On the other hand, Chandigarh-based wildlife photographer Vikas Salil Sharma had his heart’s fill of a leopard high up on a tree at the Jim Corbett National Park because a powerful tiger waiting below had threatened the spotted cat’s existence from morning to sunset!

Though leopards and trees seem synonymous, and reiterated by fictional depictions such as Kipling’s, the reality is that leopards take recourse to trees only when the specifics of the habitat require it. In our region’s foothills, the leopard is the apex predator and there are no tigers or lions to reduce competition by killing leopards. Neither are there packs of hyenas or dholes (wild dogs) or crocodiles to steal a leopard’s kill, necessitating the latter to hoist the kill into the branches. The foothills brim with dense bush and tall wild grasses that serve a leopard well to hole up for the day.

“Leopards are very adaptable creatures. They survive in desert habitats where there are few trees, or for that matter, the snow leopards of barren, high-altitude tracts. In Sri Lanka, leopards may find it less necessary to take frequent recourse to trees because there are no tigers as compared to Kabini Wildlife Sanctuary (Karnataka) where leopards are often found on trees because of tigers. Young male leopards haunt trees because they can escape from older, dominant male leopards as the former can climb a tree higher if pursued by the latter. This is similar to what we see in urban areas where young male garden cats hole up on trees to avoid clashing with dominant, powerful males,” India’s leading expert on leopard-human conflict, Vidya Athreya, told this writer.

A young female leopard on a Dek tree at night, Ropar Shivalik foothills, Punjab. (PHOTO: AMRIT PAL)
A young female leopard on a Dek tree at night, Ropar Shivalik foothills, Punjab. (PHOTO: AMRIT PAL)

Where leopards use trees more frequently, a variety of reasons account for their arboreal preference. They can avoid ground-dwelling insects, seek relief from heat in the cool canopy or enjoy a fresh breeze or even use it as a vantage point to keep a lookout for prey or rival leopards. Cubs find safety in the high branches when the mother is out hunting for food. A tree affords a safe, peaceful nap for a leopard sprawling on a thick bough. Leopards climb trees to escape mobs of people, such as an incident in Patiala when a leopard shot up a tall eucalyptus in sheer fright from a posse of cops and people that had surrounded the ‘roving rosettes’.

The ability of leopards to climb is astounding, especially when they are hoisting a heavy kill into the high branches to stash it away for a hearty meal. Leopards also climb trees to hunt for monkeys and squirrels while their compact bodies allow them to out climb some of the lions and tigers who venture to climb trees in leopard pursuit.

“A leopard has the ideal physiology for tree climbing. They are lightweight compared to a lion; they are powerfully built in their shoulders and forelimbs, allowing them to pull themselves up steep tree trunks; they have a low centre of gravity and incredibly high power-to-weight ratio; they have protractile claws allowing them to grip bark; their front limbs are free from attachment to the collarbone (joined only by ligament and muscle) which allows free movement; their mobile backbone allows them to twist and turn and balance themselves, twisting up to 180 degrees relative to the other half of their body; and their tails are long, slender and sturdy for keeping balance when climbing…they can balance on branches narrower than their paws,” explained African wildlife guide, naturalist and writer, Bruce Arnott.

vjswild1@gmail.com

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