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Leopard cub rescued from feral dogs in Pune district
The cub was put inside a small enclosure in a sugarcane field close to where he was first seen by the villagers, and remote-controlled camera traps were installed to photograph its reunion with his mother.
A two-month-old leopard cub was saved from feral dogs that were chasing it by the residents of Pune’s Papalwadi village before getting reunited with his mother early Tuesday in Khed taluka of the district by the forest officials.
The leopard was found unhurt in the medical examination at the Wildlife SOS leopard rescue centre at Junnar taluka, where it was brought by the forest department officials after its rescue from the village.
“The cub is a male, estimated to be 2-months-old. Luckily, he did not sustain any injuries and was able to recover quickly from the stressful ordeal. We thank the people of Papalwadi village for their compassion and for saving the cub’s life,” said Dr. Nikhil Bangar, wildlife veterinary officer, Wildlife SOS.
Pradeep Kasare, a range forest officer in Khed, also thanked the residents of Papalwadi for acting swiftly to save the baby leopard.
The next day, the cub was put inside a small enclosure in a sugarcane field close to where he was first seen by the villagers, and remote-controlled camera traps were installed to photograph the cub’s reunion with its mother, which happened in the very first attempt, said officials. The cub was excited to spot his mother emerging from the field. She rushed to him, sniffed curiously around the box before pushing it open to fetch her child and vanished into the wild.
“Over the years, the wild cats of Maharashtra have suitably adapted to habitat modification and have moved out of the shrinking forests, and into the dense sugarcane fields. Female leopards often leave their young under the cover of the sugarcane fields while they go hunting. However, these cubs face the risk of being exposed because farmers move around the fields, especially during the harvest season,” Wildlife SOS said in a statement on Tuesday.
