India: Man-eater leopard joins city zoo

Abhinav Malhotra, TNN 19 October 2009, 10:46pm IST

KANPUR: The Kanpur zoo has added another leopard to its existing number (seven). But, this time, it is a female man-eater that has joined the ‘barred’ animal kingdom in city. However, there is no need to panic as the zoo authorities have made necessary arrangements for its accommodation.

“This leopard has been brought to the Kanpur zoo from the Katarnia Ghat (sanctuary) near Bahraich. It was kept there initially but, later, senior zoo officials decided to transfer it to the Kanpur zoo. After some time, this leopard will gradually adapt to the zoo environment and then it will be shifted to the enclosure of the leopards,” a zoo keeper told TOI.

Another keeper at the Kanpur zoo revealed that the ferocious big cat has been kept at the hospital of the Kanpur zoological park where it will kept under observation for about a week. During its stay in the hospital, it will be vaccinated and given food on time like other animals. It is only after this that the man-eater leopard will be put into the leopard’s enclosure.

It is not for the first time that a man-eater animal has been inducted in the Kanpur zoo but, if the authorities are to be believed, such animals have been made a part of the zoo on earlier occasions also. The leopards, which basically belong to the cat family, have been acknowledged as good sprinters. They are also capable of climbing up trees and are thus termed as good hunters.

“It is only when a leopard becomes old and weak that it becomes man-eater as, for these big cats, human beings are the soft and the easy target for satisfying their appetite,” said a keeper of the Kanpur zoo while talking to TOI.

“Depleting green cover on a vast scale and human interference in their habitat annoy these wild animals, causing them to attack humans,” he informed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Man-eater-leopard-joins-city-zoo/articleshow/5139836.cms

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