Research overview: leopard conflict and snaring in Sri Lanka

This overview examines human-leopard conflict in Sri Lanka, home to an endemic leopard subspecies that ranges across tea estates, scrub, and forest mosaics. It synthesises evidence on the leading threat of accidental snaring, wire traps set for wild boar and deer that maim and kill leopards, alongside retaliatory killing after livestock or dog depredation and occasional attacks on people. The literature discusses estate-worker exposure, conflict in the hill country and dry zone, snare-removal and awareness efforts, and the challenge of protecting a wide-ranging cat outside reserves. The survey frames Sri Lankan leopard conflict as dominated by incidental snaring mortality, illustrating how subsistence hunting of prey can imperil a predator even absent direct persecution.