Leopard Predation Thread

[AlexE]

The dog-eating leopard successfully captured

A team of vets and conservationist leading by the Iranian Cheetah Socity’s expert Mohammad Farhadinia, successfully captured a Persian leopard in a Tazeh Qal’eh village in North Khorasan province.

After a series of attacks to villagers’ domestic stock and herding dogs, the North Khorasan Office of Iran DoE asked the ICS expert and his fellow vets to capture the problem leopard.

Tazeh Qal’eh is located just near the Iranian border with Turkmenistan. The number of leopard attacks had been sharply increased during this fall, and even in two separate incidents two residents had been injured by the leopard.

The local wildlife authority had tried different traditional methods to keep the leopard away from the village, including setting fire, using torch lights, and frequently patrolling around the village. However, these efforts had been failed to reduce the leopard depredation incidents.

The captured team deployed three foot snare traps in and around the village and in less than three nights they could successfully captured the problem leopard. Early investigations revealed that indeed the leopard ages 12-14 years, one of the oldest Persian leopards so far detected in the wild. The male leopard, later name “Omid'” meaning hope, was found to lost his canine teeth and suffers from sever mouth and dental problems. The team decided to transfer Omid to Tehran where a he can receive medical treatment. Omid is now kept at Iran DoE’s Pardisan Rehabilitation Centre. The capture team and authorities believe that Omid can not be released back into the wild.

This pretty old #leopard killed more than 15 dogs and attacked three people, along #Iran #Turkmenistan border. We had to capture and trans locate him to captivity. Poor dental condition

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.wildlife.ir/en/2014/12/22/dog-eating-leopard-successfully-captured/
https://twitter.com/MSFarhadinia/status/955755255370743808

The Foundation team visited the site where a herd dog had reportedly been killed by a leopard at the request of our national partner, Khorasan Razavi Department of the Environment. Located at a local fisheries facility in Dorbadam Protected Area, the dog’s carcass was visited over a few consecutive nights by a leopard which was thought to be an adult in its prime.

However, photos taken by local nature fans revealed a remarkable journey, from Tandoureh National Park to the depredation site, a straight line distance of some 30 km. The leopard – in fact a very old male – had been previously photographed in Tandoureh by our camera traps in July 2015, so we were able to identify him from his rosette patterns, which are unique to each individual. Going against local requests to capture and remove him, we decided that the leopard should not be subjected to such an intervention as this was his only known depredation in the area. Nevertheless, we had to consider that leaving the dog carcass where it was could encourage the leopard to stay around for a longer period, which might result in its death at the hands of illegal local hunters.

The Foundation experts therefore recommended that the carcass be removed from the immediate vicinity of the fisheries facility to discourage the leopard from returning. We also had to come up with further intervention measures in case the leopard did become a problem, as well as being prepared to undertake the fairly intensive monitoring needed to obtain information locally about other conflict situations that might arise. Fortunately, after the carcass was removed and placed elsewhere, the leopard took the kill to a hiding place and then left. Two months later no report of further conflict had been received by the local rangers.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://future4leopards.org/conflict-scene-inspected-to-prevent-leopard-persecution-near-turkmenistan-border/ Reply