LIVING WITH PREDATORS

In an ever-crowded world, conserving predators means valuing the people that live and can die - alongside them

- ADAM HART

I REMEMBER WELL THE FIRST TIME I saw a 'proper' wild predator. I was driving through the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico when I spotted a jaguar. He wasn't fully grown, but he was nonetheless magnificent. I can still recall every second, 23 years later.

In a recent study ranking animals in terms of perceived ‘charisma’, the top two spots went to the tiger and lion. Six of the top ten were predators. Whether you’ve grown up with Simba, Shere Khan or Yogi Bear, and whether you are driving a Jaguar or cheering on the British Lions rugby team, predators are deeply entrenched in our heritage and culture.

Despite this, and despite the essential role they play in properly functioning ecosystems, many large predators are facing serious challenges. Their ranges and populations are diminishing as we take their land for agriculture, mines, roads and developments, and remove their prey by hunting species such as antelope and deer. What habitat we don’t take, we degrade and fragment, making life especially difficult for species that need large amounts of space.

Added to those pressures is our long history of persecution – our killing of predators out of fear for our families and livestock. Together, all these factors have conspired to push many predators to the edge.