Leopard caught in a trap and rescued

Many wildlife species in the country are increasingly reported to be coming in direct confrontation with humans and their pets. This has led to wildlife getting either killed or injured.

According to experts, the growing human population, disintegration of habitat, animals fleeing from predators, etc., are causing the rise in the number of cases of wildlife being attacked across the country.

Further, the wildlife habitat fragmentation due to continuous development works has been observed as a general reason for the trend.

The forestry officials in various dzongkhags keep records of wildlife being trapped or injured by humans. They have been responding proactively to such calls and were able to rescue many of the injured wildlife. But in a few cases, the rescue came in a little too late or the injury was too grave for the animal to survive.

On October 20, the officials with the Wildlife Rescue and Animal Health Section under Wildlife Conservation Division, Department of Forest and Park Services (DoFPS) have rescued a male common leopard from Thongjhazur village under Saprang.

The Forest Officer with Royal Manas National Park, Sangay Dorji, was informed of the trapped leopard by villagers who were conducting a community forestry boundary survey. The trap had been set about 80 meters away from the village by the villagers to guard their cultivated lands from crop raiding wild animals.

It is believed that the male leopard was caught in the trap from the night of October 18. The rescue team had to administer a tranquilizer dose to sedate and examine the leopard. They also noted down the physical measurements of the leopard, it weighed 65 kilograms and was around 7-8 years old. Officials confirmed that the leopard was in a healthy state and without injury to any parts of its body. The male leopard was later released in to the Kanimakra forest in Royal Manas National Park (RMNP) in Gelephu after being tended to by the wildlife experts.

Check Also

Bhutan Records Over 200 Mollusc Species

Bhutan has reached a significant milestone in biodiversity research with the identification of over 200 …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *