Abstract

Even though the challenges to the conservation of African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) in Ethiopia are wide ranging, little is known about the trend of their potential threats. Similarly, the impacts of direct human-induced mortalities of leopards are poorly understood. Available literature sources that include published and unpublished reports and manuscripts on African leopard were reviewed in order to investigate the effect of human-mediated mortality like trophy hunting, poaching and retaliatory killing of leopards in Ethiopia. From our review, we concluded that poaching is the prominent problem as compared to the other human mediated mortalities of leopards. It is therefore recommended to put in place concrete protection measures to reverse the existing crimes against leopards and undertake further field assessment on their possible habitats and threats.

Key words: Impact, threats, human-mediated mortality, trophy hunting, poaching, retaliatory killing, illegal killing.