The leopard (Panthera pardus) in southeastern Nigeria: status, ecological correlates of occurrence, and conservation implications

The status and the ecological correlates of occurrence of the leopard (Panthera pardus Linnaeus, 1758) from rainforests of southeastern Nigeria are presented in this paper. A total of 47 randomly selected forest patches with at least some patches of primary vegetation were examined, and eight different environmental variables were recorded from each study site. Canonical Analysis and Principal Component Analysis were used to assess which variables were positively correlated with the presence of the leopards, which proved extremely rare over the whole study region. In fact, the presence of the leopard was ascertained only in two sites (4.25% of the total number of surveyed areas), whereas it was a possibility in four other sites (8.5% of the total number of surveyed areas). Seats and tracks were found in only one of the former localities, whereas che skull of a recently killed adult specimen was seen in the other of the two sites. The various environmental parameters include total wooded surface (TWS), linear distance from the closest creek or pond (LDW), and the presence of some potential prey types (Cercopithecus monkeys, PM, and Cephalophus antelopes, PA). Some conservation implications of the observed patterns are also discussed.