The leopard is a charismatic, wide-ranging and adaptable carnivore, and in Sri Lanka, the endemic sub-species Panthera pardus kotiya, plays the role of apex predator which increases its ecological importance.

For these reasons the leopard can play a vital role as an “umbrella” species, which means that by protecting the habitat needed for a long-term, viable leopard population, we can also conserve the wider biodiversity that utilises that same habitat and therefore falls under its ecological “umbrella”. As a result, this island leopard can hold an extremely important position in influencing landscape-level conservation and how we are to use our limited landmass.

To read the full story visit https://www.dailymirror.lk/news-features/An-Island-leopard-keeping-our-natural-landscapes-intact/131-289116

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