Sometimes life really just pours it on all at once. I guess it’s my time for that.
This morning while heading into work, I was following one of our maintenance guys in a truck that, unfortunately, doesn’t have a lot in the way of mirrors. Well, it has mirrors, but the bed is so wide it’s hard for them to see behind.
As we were going down the road into the village at Best Friends, a large piece of equipment they use to fix the potholes in the road was coming the other way. We both stopped.
The guy in front I guess figured he needed to back up to let him pass, and before I could even realize it he was in reverse and heading my way. I just didn’t have the time to react and he went right into me. The damage:
Maybe looks more cosmetic, but it did puncture the radiator as my car was weeping some sort of fluid on the ground. Thankfully it will get fixed, but it means in the meantime I am without my sweet little Explorer.
Sigh.
Wildlife SOS works to save many, many species. But maybe none do I WANT to see helped more than the Leopard.
It’s a tragic story of man-animal conflict, and in these cases neither wins. Well, maybe man eventually will prevail, but always to the detriment of the animal and always with casualties along the way.
These majestic creatures lived happily in the wild in the Indian State of Maharashtra. These animals are a victim of development. Like many animals, loss of habitat forced them into survival mode. Wild land turned into farmed sugar fields. The Leopards still, sadly, found the sugar fields a livable habitat; gave birth to cubs, and in an effort to protect them turned to killing people.
The response, of course, was not to move out of the Leopard habitat, but instead to remove the Leopards.
Some were released, others however, were placed in a Centre in Junnar, Maharashtra (about four hours from Mumbai). The Government made a call to Wildlife SOS asking for help running the Centre they had created to care for the cats. Woefully inadequate, the Leopards need our help.
Some have enclosures have what you see in the second photo. Others have what you see above. Even the best enclosures simply are not good enough. They are too small, not natural enough, and have no place to hide. Leopards don’t like to be seen, but the current digs basically put them on display.
We have plans this year to fund as much of this project as possible. The land exists at Junnar to build natural, beautiful enclosures, all that is needed is the money. If you want to help you can donate to Wildlife SOS here.
