Return of leopards to West Coast National Park likely due to migration from Piketberg mountains - Landmark Foundation

The Landmark Foundation says it suspects the return of leopards to the West Coast National Park follows a migration from the Piketberg mountains.
 
It adds that research confirms leopards have been reclaiming undamaged habitats in the mountains since the 1990s.
 
In October, researchers spotted a leopard in the West Coast National Park for the first time in 170 years.
 
Leopards were previously exterminated in the area by systematic bounty hunting as a so-called vermin species.
 
The first evidence of leopards reappearing in the region dates back to 2019.
 
This led to a formal research initiative to track and study the re-emergence through camera traps in the park.
 
Researchers at the University of the Western Cape's Landmark Rewilding Project have been working with SANParks. 
 
The initiative's Dr Bool Smuts: "What we know historically is that leopards in the coastal belt were wiped out by 1840. So the last leopards were along the coastal zone in the West Coast were seen in 1840. And this latest photograph was the first documented proof of a leopard returning to the national park areas."

The leopards have been found to regulate the black-backed jackal and caracal population and control infection levels in prey. 
 
Dr Smuts attributed the recolonization of the species to greater protective developments and less livestock farming. 
 
Article by Camray Clarke.