There are only two megacities where big cats thrive: Los Angeles and Mumbai, where the people and cats are learning to coexist. These mountain lions and leopards hold lessons for the rest of the world.
“P1 was as big as they get in southern California, about 150 pounds,” said Seth Riley, a National Park Service ecologist who was part of the effort. “These dominant males are the ones that breed — they won’t tolerate other adult males in their territory.”
As with medieval European kings, the biggest threat turned out to be inbreeding. Living in small territories separated by highways has caused some males to mate with daughters and granddaughters, who weren’t able to naturally disperse farther away. That’s led to genetic problems such as fertility issues and kinked tails.
The leopards’ core range is centered around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a protected area boxed on three sides by an urbanized landscape, including a neighborhood that’s home to 100,000 people and nearly a dozen leopards.Researchers tackled specific questions from park managers, such as how the cats cross busy roads near the park.
But learning to live alongside cats is not only a matter of infrastructure decisions, but also human choices and education. That is not to say living alongside a big predator is without perils. In Mumbai, Purvi Lote saw her first leopard when she was 5, on the porch of a relative’s home. Terrified, she ran back inside to her mother. But now the 9-year-old says she isn’t as afraid of the big cats.
Officials roped in volunteers, nongovernmental groups and the media for a public education program in 2011. Since then, fatalities have dropped steadily and no one has been killed in an attack since 2017.
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