Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2025
09:47
Spotting Cheetahs: Identifying Individuals by Their Footprints
Published on: May 1, 2016
14.8K
Leopard subspecies conservation under climate and land-use change
Charlotte Mitchell1, Jamie Bolam1, Laura D Bertola2
1Biosciences University of Exeter Exeter UK.
Ecology and Evolution
|May 23, 2024
Summary
Global environmental changes threaten leopard subspecies, with African and Arabian leopards facing range loss. Conservation efforts must address protection gaps and human-wildlife conflict, while Persian leopards may expand their range.
Area of Science:
- Conservation Biology
- Ecology
- Climate Change Impact
Background:
- Large carnivores like leopards are vital for ecosystem health but face threats from global environmental changes.
- Leopards (Panthera pardus) are adaptable felids crucial to African and Asian ecosystems, yet their populations are declining.
- Understanding how climate and land-use changes affect leopard distribution is critical for effective conservation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To predict future range suitability for three western leopard subspecies under climate and land-use change.
- To identify conservation gaps and opportunities by overlapping predicted ranges with protected areas (PAs).
- To highlight the importance of intraspecific variation in vulnerability assessments for leopards.
Main Methods:
- Intraspecific species distribution models (SDMs) were developed for African, Arabian, and Persian leopard subspecies.
- Future climate and land-use scenarios were used to project changes in suitable habitat.
- Predicted suitable ranges were analyzed in conjunction with existing protected area coverage.
Main Results:
- Leopard subspecies exhibit varying responses to environmental changes: African leopards may lose ~25%, Arabian ~14%, and Persian leopards may gain ~12% of suitable range.
- A significant portion of suitable leopard habitat, only 4%-16%, is currently protected, with this proportion projected to decrease.
- Protected areas are insufficient to cover future suitable ranges, necessitating community engagement and habitat restoration.
Conclusions:
- Intraspecific variation significantly influences leopard vulnerability to environmental changes, underscoring the need for subspecies-specific conservation strategies.
- Inadequate protected area coverage and ongoing persecution outside PAs pose major threats to leopard survival.
- Conservation opportunities include community-based conflict mitigation, habitat restoration, and leveraging rewilding initiatives for potential range expansion, particularly for Persian leopards in Europe.
Related Concept Videos
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
9.6K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
9.6K
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
13.1K
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...
13.1K
01:57What is Conservation Biology?
18.4K
Conservation biology is a scientific field that focuses on the preservation of biodiversity in order to protect ecosystems while meeting the needs of the human population. Humans require properly functioning ecosystems to maintain our supply of natural resources, including food, medicines, and building materials.
18.4K
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
22.2K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
22.2K
02:31Habitat Fragmentation
17.5K
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
17.5K
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
16.2K
Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.
16.2K