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Tiger and leopard conflict records point to different landscapes in South Asia

Wild Bengal tiger in Dudhwa National Park, India
Research: Ecology · Conservation: Human–wildlife conflict

Where conflicts between people and large carnivores are recorded may depend partly on the kind of landscape involved. In a bioRxiv preprint that has not yet undergone peer review, a regional study examined 2,563 human–tiger conflict records and 4,457 human–leopard conflict records from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, covering 2000 to 2024.

For tigers (Panthera tigris), conflict locations were associated with more fragmented forests—forests broken into smaller patches—and with being closer to human settlements. They were also associated with lower overall human disturbance. These are distinct landscape features: proximity to settlements does not necessarily mean a location has the highest overall level of disturbance.

Leopard (Panthera pardus) conflict locations showed a different pattern. They were concentrated in highly productive landscapes with high rainfall and substantial human modification. Across both species, the patterns emerged most clearly at the broadest of the three spatial scales the researchers examined.

The contrasting patterns suggest that conflict involving tigers and leopards may call for different approaches to understanding and management, rather than treating all large-carnivore conflict as the same problem. The study maps associations, not causes. It does not by itself explain why conflict occurs, and the authors say a fuller picture also needs information on carnivore abundance, wild-prey densities and socioeconomic factors.

Sources and image credit

  1. Determining Spatial Patterns of Human-Tiger and Human-Leopard Conflict across South Asia through A Multi-Scale Regional ApproachPrimary source: bioRxiv preprint. The primary page was inaccessible during verification; the abstract and posting date were checked through an indexed record. This is a preprint, not a peer-reviewed journal article.
  2. Determining Spatial Patterns of Human-Tiger and Human-Leopar — Preprint MatchSecondary index reproducing the abstract and listing the bioRxiv DOI and date; used to verify the abstract while the primary page was inaccessible.

Image: Biswarup11 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wild Bengal tiger in Dudhwa National Park, India; representative species image. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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Tiger Panthera tigris Explore species Leopard Panthera pardus Explore species

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