00:01Leopards are making a rare comeback along South Africa's West Coast, more than 170 years after disappearing from the region.
00:11Conservationists say a small group of seven leopards, including two cubs, is now moving through a landscape that has changed
00:18significantly since the big cats were last seen there.
00:23It's quite a landmark historical conservation event, spotting leopard, the last free-roaming apex predator in South Africa and most
00:32of its range, for the first time in 170 years in a site.
00:37So it's been absent in that area for over one and a half centuries.
00:42And the fact that they've come back walking through quite a transformed landscape is very encouraging for conservation,
00:50because most of the time we hear these very disappointing stories about the loss of another species, animals being killed
00:58and less and less space for them.
01:00So the fact that we're seeing the opposite in the West Coast area is a really unusual event.
01:07The return follows decades of habitat changes and the expansion of conservancies and eco estate, which have created more suitable
01:16space for wildlife.
01:19But the comeback is not welcomed by everyone.
01:25I love horses, I love cattle, and I love sheep.
01:29Sheep is one of my favourite animals.
01:31And to see it being attacked, eaten by any predator is a source of distress to me, let alone commercial
01:40distress, it also is a personal source of stress to me.
01:43So, no, do not want any more predators on the farm than what we already have with the caracal.
01:50Conservation groups are working with farmers on measures to reduce livestock losses, including compensation schemes.
01:57For now, the seven leopards do not yet represent a viable population.
02:04You can find it every single place that rules the Marshmallow Research, information suiasticity takes two different routes.
