Big cats in our backyard: persistence of large carnivores in a human-dominated landscape in India

Athreya and colleagues camera-trapped a densely populated agricultural landscape in Maharashtra with no protected forest and found surprisingly high densities of leopards and striped hyenas living among people, crops, and livestock. The study overturned the assumption that large carnivores require wilderness, documenting cats subsisting largely on domestic dogs and other anthropogenic prey while remaining mostly undetected by residents. The authors argued that coexistence, not just conflict, characterises much of rural India, and that management should focus on reducing negative interactions rather than removing animals. The work reshaped thinking about leopard ecology and conflict in shared landscapes across South Asia.