For many years, the most serious damage to forests in the nation has been caused by land development in low-altitude mountain areas.
At the same time, people’s understanding of the animals and plants that inhabit such environments is far from complete, and the foothills are seldom a focus for ecological conservation.
Although schoolchildren love nature, they are unlikely to form a deep identification with low-mountain ecology as they grow up.
The nostalgia that many people born in the 1950s and 1960s feel for such rural zones has little influence on the following generations, so they are unlikely to establish a common set of values in this regard.
One thing to be happy about is that leopard cats have been in the public eye, providing a new opportunity to take a good look at the aesthetics of not-so-remote mountain areas and think seriously about how town and countryside relate.
Recent years have seen a rapid decline in the nation’s leopard cat population and it looks as though they might be following cloud leopards on the path to extinction.
This threat is leading people to pay more attention to the significance of accessible mountains and ask what other animals exist on farmland close to the foothills.
People are curious about what little temples are dotted throughout the forest, what issues of land ethics might emerge among the terraced fields, and what special features mountain foothills in different regions might have.
People’s vague understanding of the lush foothills makes the species that live in them all the more precious.
The leopard cat is a fine example. Like the magic cat Totoro, but of the real world, it is like a glistening gem embedded in the hillside belts.
The stealthy wanderings of the leopard cat make people all the more curious about it.
Leopard cat sightings used to be quite common, which shows that the environment in the past was suitable for them.
These days it is much harder to spot one, and the reason so many leopard cats have disappeared is that vast tracts of land have been developed.
When one or two of the creatures are found lying dead on the road after having been hit by a vehicle, it does not mean that there are plenty of them left.
Rather, it should serve as a warning that human presence is depriving them of their right to survival.
On the other hand, the continued existence of a few leopard cats shows how lucky Taiwanese are to still be able to find 100 or more hectares of uninterrupted woodland.
These days, most leopard cats live in small areas of second-growth forest in the vicinity of cultivated land.
This is precisely the kind of environment that is most frequently used for building factories or roads, fragmenting animal populations and making it hard for them to meet, mate and breed.
When only 20 or 30 hectares of unbroken forest is left, a few partridges or voles may still be wandering around, but leopard cats, which prowl over a wide territory, cannot possibly move around as freely as they used to in such a confined space, and it may become impossible for them to produce young.
It is indeed a blessing to find signs of leopard cats. It means that nature is still in harmony with civilization.
A mountain forest without leopard cats is one that has lost its heart. It is a lonely place.
The same is true of Formosan masked civets and masked palm civets. They are all part of the “Totoro family” — our mammalian neighbors in the nearby mountains.
At present, the place where leopard cats are the most talked about is Sanyi Township (三義) in Miaoli County.
Many environmentalists who have been opposing the construction of an 8km bypass road have also been extolling the importance of the leopard cat through various literary and creative means.
Whenever I stop by, I think about how tung tree blossoms can be seen all over Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties.
If some townships in these counties want to highlight their special features, leopard cats could well be the answer.
This is especially true of Sanyi. Its railway station could adopt the leopard cat as its mascot.
Combined with the Huoyanshan Ecocenter (火炎山生態教育館) and hiking trails in the surrounding foothills, this could become a new destination for ecotourism.
Like its cousin the Iriomote cat on Iriomote Island in Japan’s Ryukyu island chain, the leopard cat could bring a lot of tourism revenue to the areas that it inhabits.
From the northern coast to the southern tip and with its mountainous terrain, Taiwan has diverse environments in its low-altitude mountain areas.
People who hike in northern Taiwan know that when they walk into the hills of Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli, it is like arriving in a foreign land, and when they go to central and southern Taiwan, even more unexpected scenes await.
Besides woodcarvings, tung blossoms and old railways, by focusing on the leopard cat, Sanyi could generate a respectable economic output from tourism.
The launch not long ago of organically grown “leopard cat rice” shows how the animal’s image can be used as a refined package for local products.
The leopard cat, like Totoro, should be thanked for reminding people about the beautiful low-altitude mountain areas.
Hopefully, one day, more people will catch a glimpse of the elusive creatures wandering through hillside forests in the daylight hours.
It would be even better if kittens were seen pacing along with their mothers.
That is the Taiwan that coming generations should inherit.
Liu Ka-shiang is a writer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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