An aged common leopard died late last night while it was being transported to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital from a mountainous suburban area for treatment of multiple injuries it had presumably suffered in territorial fight with other wild animal, an official said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening, the AJK wildlife and fisheries department dispatched a team to Riyali village, located some 35 kilometres towards northwest of here along the famous Machiara National Park, after the concerned village conservation committee members reported that a leopard, zoologically known as Panthera Pardus, was walking through a mountain stream with difficulty, which suggested it had suffered some serious wounds in its hind legs.
According to Syeda Shaista, a wildlife monitoring officer based in Muzaffarabad, the villagers had earlier tried on their own to rescue the wild cat but in vain.
The five-member team somehow managed to bundle the injured big cat into the back of pick-up for transportation to Muzaffarabad, but it expired shortly after the team had reached Patikka, a town along the main Neelum valley road, after covering around 20 kilometre journey through the precipitous link road, she told this scribe.
Ms Shaista said that the autopsy of the carnivore was performed by the AJK animal husbandry department veterinarians on Wednesday, during which they observed that it had suffered multiple injuries in the mouth region and hind legs due to the biting by other wild animals.
The report further stated that the animal’s backbone, vertebral column and bones of hind legs had also been severely fractured, which had caused its death, she added.
“It seems this aged leopard had gotten into a territorial fight with another leopard. And while being driven out, it fell from some height and suffered multiple fractures that led to its death.” Ms Shaista said.
She told that the hide of the dead animal would be flayed for stuffing.
The authoritative Red List of ‘Threatened Species’ compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies Panthera Pardus as “near threatened” species.
In Pakistan, this species is found in almost the entire mountainous range of AJK, adjoining Murree hills and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The AJK wildlife department claims that indirect evidence has shown that the population of leopards has increased in their area over the past decade.
With increased population and shrinking natural habitat and natural prey, the fight between the wild animals over space and food was occurring frequently, Ms Shaista said, adding, it was also why some of these animals occasionally descended on human populations.
