Runaway leopard returns to Indian park after escape
By : AFP
Date:
5 January 2019 1:30pm WAT
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This undated handout photograph released to AFP on January 4, 2019 by the Gujarat Forest Department shows an Indian Asiatic lioness with her lion cub and an adopted leopard cub (R) in Gir National Park in India's western Gujarat state. - An Asiatic lioness has adopted a two-month old leopard cub after it got separated from its mother in Gir National Park in India's western Gujarat state, Indian forestry officials said. "Usually, lions kill cubs of the other wildcats to ward off future competition for prey. But this lioness is not only feeding the leopard cub along with her two three-month old cubs, but also protecting it against other predators like male lions," said Dhiraj Mittal, deputy conservator of forests, who documented the rare sighting. (Photo by Handout / GUJARAT FOREST DEPARTMENT / AFP) /
This undated handout photograph released to AFP on January 4, 2019 by the Gujarat Forest Department shows an Indian Asiatic lioness with her lion cub and an adopted leopard cub (R) in Gir National Park in India's western Gujarat state. - An Asiatic lioness has adopted a two-month old leopard cub after it got separated from its mother in Gir National Park in India's western Gujarat state, Indian forestry officials said. "Usually, lions kill cubs of the other wildcats to ward off future competition for prey. But this lioness is not only feeding the leopard cub along with her two three-month old cubs, but also protecting it against other predators like male lions," said Dhiraj Mittal, deputy conservator of forests, who documented the rare sighting. (Photo by Handout / GUJARAT FOREST DEPARTMENT / AFP) /
This undated handout photograph released to AFP on January 4, 2019 by the Gujarat Forest Department shows an Indian Asiatic lioness with her lion cub and an adopted leopard cub (R) in Gir National Park in India’s western Gujarat state. – An Asiatic lioness has adopted a two-month old leopard cub after it got separated from its mother in Gir National Park in India’s western Gujarat state, Indian forestry officials said. “Usually, lions kill cubs of the other wildcats to ward off future competition for prey. But this lioness is not only feeding the leopard cub along with her two three-month old cubs, but also protecting it against other predators like male lions,” said Dhiraj Mittal, deputy conservator of forests, who documented the rare sighting. (Photo by Handout / GUJARAT FOREST DEPARTMENT / AFP) /A runaway leopard which escaped from an safari park in eastern India on New Year’s Day has been recaptured after a massive search operation, an official said Saturday.
Wildlife authorities had deployed drones, trained elephants and set up traps with live bait to find the big cat after it escaped the park located in the foothills of the Himalayas, 557 kilometres (346 miles) north of Kolkata, capital of West Bengal.
The four-year-old beast nicknamed Sachin finally returned to its enclosure in the park late Friday, after a days’ long hunt.
Nearly 100 foresters were pursuing the cat after its escape sparked panic in local villages.
“Sachin had been raised in captivity and could not hunt to feed itself,” Vinod Kumar Yarad of the West Bengal Zoo Authority told AFP.
“We kept a large chunk of meat inside the leopard’s enclosure with its gate left open. On Friday night, it returned to its enclosure, injured and hungry,” he said
Yarad said the cat was raised in captivity and lacked the ability to hunt in a wild, and had probably suffered injuries in an attempt to kill a wild boar or some other animal.
