Ayers took a position on the board in 2021. At the time, he was recovering from a cycling accident that left him partially paralyzed from the torso down, and felt he needed a plan\u2014something else to focus his attention on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy going through something like this and most people don\u2019t do very well,\u201d Ayers told GNN in 2021. \u201cNot that I\u2019m perfect, but being able to work on something like this is the greatest gift to me\u2026 because it helps me through a transition in my life, and because it gives me purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The work going on in Kafue, which has included camera trap surveys, smarter anti-poaching patrols, and GPS-tagging white-backed vultures to act as an early-warning system for poisoning activity, has seen the decline in the area\u2019s lion numbers cease, and reverse, as well as the near-tripling of the leopard population mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cPanthera just led the largest survey of lions and leopards ever accomplished in Kafue,\u201d said Ayers.<\/p>\n
Leopards, the chairman adds, are more ubiquitous and have more fixed territories than lions or cheetah, which means camera trapping these cats is more effective than usual at estimating their numbers. The camera trap surveys are the best tool for understanding whether or not Panthera\u2019s work in the ecosystem is succeeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like, how do you know if you\u2019re winning the game if you don\u2019t have a scoreboard? So the surveys act as a scoreboard,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Panthera has worked with leopards for years, notably through their Furs for Life program that convinced indigenous African cultures who use leopard furs as part of their ceremonies to switch to synthetic furs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese indigenous groups, one of the biggest ones is called the African Congregational Church, they use these leopard furs as part of their rituals. And they needed to go out and kill leopards to get the leopard skins so that young and upcoming members could have leopard skins as part of their celebrations,\u201d Ayers explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so what we\u2019ve done is by working with these leaders, we\u2019ve said \u2018hey that\u2019s not so good for the ecosystem on which you rely, why don\u2019t we substitute very authentic synthetic furs?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
During the period in which the leopard numbers nearly tripled, there were no recorded poaching instances for leopard furs from locals affiliated with the church or any other known ceremonial group, according to Panthera\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
Leopards, (Panthera pardus) are considered by the IUCN Red List to be \u2018Vulnerable\u2019 and decreasing across their whole range on average.<\/p>\n
There are few hideaways for the leopard worth mentioning if they can\u2019t make it inside Kafue, and it bears explaining exactly what Kafue is and what it represents.<\/p>\n In the same way that Kafue National Park is nested inside the Greater Kafue Ecosystem, the Greater Kafue Ecosystem is one part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, the largest terrestrial conservation landscape in the world.<\/p>\n It spans five countries (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) and encompasses 36 protected areas across some 520,000 square kilometers. This is a region the size of France, and one so large and so important to the continent, it has its own visa that allows visitors to transit national borders as easily as an elephant can.<\/p>\n As long as Panthera is involved, one can rest assured there will be leopards to be found here, and if there are leopards there, the reader can rest assured their grandchildren will be able to see a leopard in the wild.<\/p>\n