Classifying, Domesticating and Extirpating the Zanzibar Leopard, a Transgressive Felid

Abstract

Abstract A key aspect of the social construction of animals is how they are made to fit into categories such as wild versus domesticated, livestock versus pet, game versus vermin and edible versus non-edible. In this paper, we consider the case of the leopard on the island of Unguja, in the Zanzibar archipelago, Tanzania. It is thought that witches secretly feed, breed and deploy leopards for purposes that include terrorizing other people and supplying food to their owners. Perceived by the general population as a dangerous witches’ familiar, and by the government sometimes as vermin, at others as meriting official protection, the Zanzibar leopard is a transgressive, “out-of-place” animal that defies tidy classification. This illustrates how, once they are incorporated into human social worlds, animals are assigned to categories that shape how they are understood and acted upon. “Domestication” in this broader sense has consequences for their survival. In Zanzibar, the association of leopards with witchcraft has contributed to their probable extirpation through grassroots and government extermination efforts. Recently – but in all likelihood too late for the leopard – there are indications that Zanzibaris have begun to see a potential benefit in them.

Keywords

• Anthrozoology
• human-wildlife conflict
• Zanzibar
• leopards
• domestication
• human-wildlifeconflict