CNN spotlight for ecologist working to save the Sri Lankan leopard

Saturday, 18 January 2020 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In the latest segment from CNN’s Answering the Call – part of the network’s global initiative ‘Call to Earth’ – CNN hears how conservationist Anjali Watson is working to protect forested land corridors for one of the most vulnerable big cats on the planet: the Sri Lankan leopard.

“We’ve lost a lot of leopards,” says Watson. “Nobody knows how many prowled the land before the war, but about 70% of the animals’ habitat has been destroyed, and only 750 to 1,000 adult leopards remain.”

As Sri Lanka’s top predator, and its only big cat, the leopard plays a key role in the country’s ecosystem.

To help monitor their numbers, Watson and her husband Andrew Kittle, went on to establish the Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT) in 2004, which investigates the size and movements of the leopard population using remote cameras.

Watson tells CNN that WWCT’s data will help to shape development plans that make space for leopards. If corridors between forest patches and buffer zones around protected areas are safeguarded, both humans and animals could thrive.

“We sit at a junction right now. We as a nation can choose to go either way. We stand somewhere where we can make a decision collectively to do the right thing and not make the mistake of developing so fast and so quickly and destroying what we have… We need to do it now. The urgency is now. Otherwise what will happen is we will lose everything.”

See online: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/15/asia/anjali-watson-saving-sri-lanka-leopards-scn-c2e-intl-hnk/index.html