Leopard Diaries

The leopard is often called one of the most beautiful animals on Earth, and its spots are known as rosettes. It is social yet solitary, hard to spot yet significant in number, large yet elusive, and it fits none of the neat categories used in big-cat conservation. In India it is the face of the fight to protect wildlife, while in many other countries it faces ecological or local extinction. That is troubling, since leopards perform ecosystem services that science has not yet fully understood.

Sanjay Gubbi has studied and documented leopards for nearly a decade, and in Leopard Diaries: The Rosette in India he takes readers up close. He describes what the animals eat, sheds new light on how their young are raised, and puts forward ideas for easing conflict between leopards and people.

He also imagines what the future might hold for the species. The result is a full-circle look at the leopard, the ecology around it, its tense relationship with humans, and how both can find a way to share the land.