In rare sighting, two leopards caught sitting on a tree in Aarey

In Mumbai, since leopards are the apex predators and are at the top of the food chain, they spend most of their time on the ground

What can be termed as a rare documentation from Mumbai, one of the members of the team working for conservation of leopards at the Aarey Milk Colony has captured two leopard cubs sitting on a tree in Aarey forest. While it is a common phenomenon to see leopards resting on trees as they are excellent climbers, there have been very few photographic records of them doing so at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Forest.

Wildlife lover and member of the team that was carrying out a camera-trapping exercise in Aarey,  Kunal Chaudhari, said, “Ordinarily, in the rest of the world, there is an apex predator whose position is higher than the leopard, and that’s why it prefers taking its kill up on the tree. But in Mumbai, leopards are the apex predators and are at the top of the food chain, and therefore spend most of their time on the ground without any fear. That’s why there are such few instances of spotting them on trees.”

Chaudhari counts himself lucky to have clicked the pictures. Wildlife volunteers Wasim Athaniya, Imran Udat and Kaushal Dubey were also present when the leopard cubs were spotted a couple of days ago at Aarey. They were following a tip by the locals that two leopard cubs and and a female adult  were spotted at a location very close to the road. When the team reached the spot, they saw the cubs resting on the tree. 

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