India’s Leopard Hills

[Gaurav_thewildside]

Jawai in Northern India is home to rural landscape dotted with granite hills and surrounded by farms and villages. In these hills, a healthy population of Leopards thrive. They primarily prey on domestic cattle, dogs and also scavenge. Despite all the cattle-lifting, the local population is very tolerant and there’s been no human-animal conflict in the region in known history!

[Tom Kellie]

~ @Gaurav_thewildside:

 

Welcome to Safaritalk!

 

What stunning Panthera pardus images in this post!

 

Looking at each photo was a real joy.

 

Having been a guest in Leopard Hills in South Africa, I see why you've described Jawai being India's Leopard Hills.

 

Is it located in Rajasthan?

 

Many thanks for sharing these superb Leopard photos here.

 

      Tom Kellie

[wilddog]

how interesting that the local population are so tolerant of losses.  Is it simply their acceptance of wild animals or is there some form of compensation offerd for loss of cattle. 

As Tom says, the photos are gorgeous 

[madaboutcheetah]

Welcome to Safaritalk @Gaurav_thewildside.......... I look forward to Jhalana/ Jawai in August ....... Cross fingers for those Striped Hyena!!!  

[Gaurav_thewildside]

5 hours ago, Tom Kellie said:

~ @Gaurav_thewildside:

 

Welcome to Safaritalk!

 

What stunning Panthera pardus images in this post!

 

Looking at each photo was a real joy.

 

Having been a guest in Leopard Hills in South Africa, I see why you've described Jawai being India's Leopard Hills.

 

Is it located in Rajasthan?

 

Many thanks for sharing these superb Leopard photos here.

 

      Tom Kellie

@Tom KellieThank you very much! Yes JAwai is located in Rajasthan…

 

The Jawai is very unique and this specific part of Jawai is very different compared to the rest of the area simply because the hills here are motorable and off-roading isn’t an issue. 

[Gaurav_thewildside]

3 hours ago, wilddog said:

how interesting that the local population are so tolerant of losses.  Is it simply their acceptance of wild animals or is there some form of compensation offerd for loss of cattle. 

As Tom says, the photos are gorgeous 

 
The local population don’t receive any compensation as such on a regular basis. It’s more a religious belief that Leopards shouldn’t be harmed and for generations, the mind set has been the same. 
 

Thank you!!!

[Gaurav_thewildside]

1 hour ago, madaboutcheetah said:

Welcome to Safaritalk @Gaurav_thewildside.......... I look forward to Jhalana/ Jawai in August ....... Cross fingers for those Striped Hyena!!!  

thank you!

 

look forward to hosting you there… 🤞🤞🤞for the hyena! 

[Kitsafari]

Lovely leopard shots, but gorgeous hyena! cross fingers for you @madaboutcheetah!

[Gaurav_thewildside]

30 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

Lovely leopard shots, but gorgeous hyena! cross fingers for you @madaboutcheetah!

thank you! 👍

 

adding in a couple more images

[Soukous]

Nice leopard shots, you managed to get much closer to them than I did.

[Gaurav_thewildside]

2 hours ago, Soukous said:

Nice leopard shots, you managed to get much closer to them than I did.

getting closer is one thing, being in the right areas of Jawai where the Hills are driveable unlike Bera is key. 
 

thank you!

[madaboutcheetah]

@Gaurav_thewildside- are there particular hyenas that they are seeing frequently at certain water holes? or Jhalana just seems to be a favourable spot for sightings ? I've seen online photos of Striped Hyena fighting leopard.

Edited June 20, 2022 by madaboutcheetah

[Soukous]

16 hours ago, Gaurav_thewildside said:

getting closer is one thing, being in the right areas of Jawai where the Hills are driveable unlike Bera is key. 
 

thank you!

 

Ah, so the secret is to not stay at Bera

[Gaurav_thewildside]

On 6/20/2022 at 8:00 AM, madaboutcheetah said:

@Gaurav_thewildside- are there particular hyenas that they are seeing frequently at certain water holes? or Jhalana just seems to be a favourable spot for sightings ? I've seen online photos of Striped Hyena fighting leopard.

the area where Hyenas are being sighted is in a new area recently opened for safari (on May 22) and during my visit on June 1st, I saw 5 Hyenas (2 and 3) at 2 different water holes. 
 

it would probably take a couple of months to know about their behavioural patterns and whether this is a routine practice. As of day before, they Hyenas have been frequenting the waterhole. 
 

On 6/20/2022 at 1:47 PM, Soukous said:

 

Ah, so the secret is to not stay at Bera

 😅 Wouldn’t say that. 
 

but stay where ever and explore the other regions as well. 

[Atravelynn]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:10 PM, wilddog said:

how interesting that the local population are so tolerant of losses.  Is it simply their acceptance of wild animals or is there some form of compensation offerd for loss of cattle. 

As Tom says, the photos are gorgeous 

 

On 6/18/2022 at 8:47 PM, Gaurav_thewildside said:

 
The local population don’t receive any compensation as such on a regular basis. It’s more a religious belief that Leopards shouldn’t be harmed and for generations, the mind set has been the same. 
 

Thank you!!!

Great question and fascinating response. 

[jeremie]

On 6/22/2022 at 4:14 PM, Gaurav_thewildside said:

the area where Hyenas are being sighted is in a new area recently opened for safari (on May 22) and during my visit on June 1st, I saw 5 Hyenas (2 and 3) at 2 different water holes. 
 

it would probably take a couple of months to know about their behavioural patterns and whether this is a routine practice. As of day before, they Hyenas have been frequenting the waterhole. 
 

 😅 Wouldn’t say that. 
 

but stay where ever and explore the other regions as well. 

 

So interesting to know this! Stripped hyena in Jhalana.... Easy hyenas!!!!! 

Did you get an idea of their behaviour or do you still need more time?