Tag: leopard

  • Fact check: No one died from the leopard attack in Islamabad

    Fact check: No one died from the leopard attack in Islamabad

    Claim: In an unusual incident, a leopard on Thursday was found on the loose in well-known private housing— Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Islamabad, attacking the people who tried to capture it. The wild animal was captured by the Wildlife Board in the evening.

    However, speculation was rife on social media that one person had died of the leopard attack.

    Fact: To address and clarify the different stories, the Chair of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, Rina Khan Satti took to Twitter on Thursday, stating that the leopard injured a total of four people including two members of the wildlife board who suffered minor injuries.

    She also urged the people to stop spreading rumours and stated that both the animal and the injured people are safe.

    Earlier today, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman also addressed the attack, sharing a video of the leopard.

    For now, the Islamabad Police has opened a criminal investigation against an unknown person for “domesticating” a leopard.

    The animal was being kept as a pet in an unknown person’s home, the police alleged on Friday in a tweet. “The suspect endangered the lives of citizens by keeping dangerous animals,” it said, adding that legal action will be taken after arresting him soon.

  • Leopard finally captured in Islamabad

    Leopard finally captured in Islamabad

    In the late hours of Thursday, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) confirmed that a leopard that was on the loose in a private housing society in Islamabad was contained.

    A total of total injuries has been reported so far by the officials.

    Leopard on the loose in DHA Islamabad

    On Thursday, a leopard injured people by entering DHA Islamabad who tried to capture it.

    The wild animal entered an under-construction house in Phase II of the society late on Thursday afternoon. Videos filmed by residents on social media show the animal evading attempts to capture it and jumping on walls.

    The Islamabad Wildlife Board and Assistant Commissioner Zukhruf Fida Malik issued instructions to residents to stay indoors till the animal is captured.

    The Wildlife Board also specified that they are using a trapper to try and capture the big cat.

    Leopards are indigenous to parts of Islamabad and neighbouring areas including Murree and Nathiagali. They are a protected species in the Margalla Hills.

  • Birthday cake helps two brothers escape leopard

    Birthday cake helps two brothers escape leopard

     Two brothers in India escaped from a leopard by throwing a birthday cake at the animal as it chased them while they were on a motorbike.

    “Your first instinct when you sense danger is to do whatever you can to save yourself. That’s what they did,” a forest official told AFP.

    “They had a cake with them and they threw it at the leopard.”

    As per reports, Firoz and Sabir Mansuri were going to a birthday party for Firoz’s son in Madhya Pradesh state when the leopard came out of a sugarcane field.

    They rode their bike faster but the big cat kept on chasing them. One of the brothers smacked the cake in the leopard’s face. Hit by the “weapon of sweet distraction”, the big cat gave up its chase and ran back into the fields.

    Read More: Apple Watch saves 78-year-old man’s life

    “The leopard followed us for over 500 metres (yards). We narrowly escaped death,” said Sabir.

    Leopard numbers in India grew more than 60 percent between 2014 and 2018 to almost 13,000, according to the government, with the highest numbers in Madhya Pradesh. They often enter villages and towns.

  • Two rare Persian leopards spotted in Balochistan

    Two rare Persian leopards spotted in Balochistan

    A pair of rare Persian leopards sighted in Pakistan for the first time last year have been filmed and photographed in the wild, officials said Friday.

    Sharifuddin Baloch, a senior conservation official in Balochistan province, said the pair were first spotted by rangers on Mount Chaltan in the Hazarganji Wildlife Park six months ago.

    Adult leopards are solitary in the wild and pair only to mate.

    “We equipped our staff with cameras and binoculars to film the pair and take photos,” Baloch said. “This month our staff succeeded.”

    Persian leopards are a panther sub-species native to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus. They are extremely rare, however, and listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered.

    Fewer than 1,000 are believed to exist in the wild, with another 200 in captivity.

    “We are taking steps to protect the rare species,” Baloch told AFP, adding officials were sharing data with the IUCN.

    Video shot by park officials shows one of the leopards beautifully camouflaged on a rugged, rocky hillside until it stands up and pads away.

    Baloch said there was no previous record of the creature ever being sighted in Pakistan.

    Panthera tilliana is bigger and has a different spot pattern to the more common Indian leopard (panthera fusca) found across Pakistan.

    Pakistan is also home to vulnerable snow leopards (panthera uncia) in the northern Himalayas.

  • Leopard on the loose sparks fear in Abbottabad

    Residents of Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are panicking after a leopard strayed into the town.

    As per reports, a leopard is on the loose in the area a week after a big cat was killed in the city’s Khushi Kote Palak Union Council.

    The leopard entered Bakote town creating panic and fear among locals who said the animal also attacked the livestock of the area.

    The locals have also requested to the wildlife department to capture the leopard as soon as possible.

    Earlier the residents of Malkot village next to  Ayubia town captured and killed a leopard that attacked their valley. Three persons were charged under Wildlife Act 2015 for allegedly killing the leopard.

  • VIDEO: Leopard spotted near Margalla Hills in Islamabad

    VIDEO: Leopard spotted near Margalla Hills in Islamabad

    Tourists spotted a leopard roaming around Margalla Hills road late Tuesday night while they were enroute to Daman-e-Koh.

    A video recorded by one of the travellers shows the leopard walking on the side of road, hide in the bushes then come back to the road. 

    As per reports, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board said that the leopard belongs to Margalla Hills National Park. 

    Read more – Fact Check: Did a leopard really attack a pet dog in Islamabad?

    Authorities said the wild cats often make their way to the roads late at night and warned people travelling to Daman-e-Koh and Pir Sohawa to be careful. Leopards often make their way out on roads late at night.

  • Fact Check: Did a leopard really attack a pet dog in Islamabad?

    Fact Check: Did a leopard really attack a pet dog in Islamabad?

    Claim: Viral video of leopard entering a house and fighting a pet dog is being placed in a house on Margalla road, Islamabad.

    Fact: The video is actually from Gujrat, India and was posted 5 days earlier on Times of India.

    A video of a leopard entering a house and getting into a fight with a pet dog is going viral on social media and especially in Whatsapp groups. It is being speculated that the incident took place in a house on Margalla Road in Islamabad considering a leopard was recently spotted on a camera trap near the hiking trails.

    Read more – Leopard spotted near Islamabad’s hiking trails

    However, the Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad has confirmed that the video is not from Islamabad.

    Meanwhile, a quick Google search revealed that this incident took place in India. According to a report in the Times of India, the incident took place in Rajkot, Gujrat. The leopard was attempting to prey on the dog but when a vehicle passed by outside, it got scared and ran away. The owner of the house said that this is the first time he witnessed such an incident and that he alerted the forest department about it.

    “We have set up a cage with a live bait inside it to trap the leopard,” said an official from the forest department.

    The leopard population in Gujarat has witnessed a growth in recent years and it appears that the lockdown which is currently in place in the country is allowing these big cats to move around more easily.

    VERDICT: FALSE [OUT OF CONTEXT]

  • Leopard spotted near Islamabad’s hiking trails

    Leopard spotted near Islamabad’s hiking trails

    With human under lockdown, nature is running free and wildlife is coming out of hiding to explore the empty spaces once swarmed with humans.

    According to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB), a male leopard was caught on a camera trap near the hiking trails of Margalla Hills National Park. While leopards are occasionally caught on camera, this is the first time a larger male leopard was spotted on the hills. The IWMB added that the latest discovery could mean that there are three families of the common leopard hiding in the national park. Popularly referred to as the Margalla Leopards, these animals are an endangered species.

    The board also shared that not just leopards but wild animals including fox, martins, porcupines, barking deer, jackals and wild boars among others have also descended from the hills. They have also been caught by the camera traps laid out by the wildlife board.

    Various species of birds including pheasants have also been spotted on the grounds.

    Meanwhile, it has also been reported that dozens of monkeys living in the Margalla Hills National Park have descended on to the residential areas of the city in search of food.

    IWMB Assistant Director Sakhawat Ali said that residents of sectors F-6 and F-7 have filed complaints about the monkeys entering their homes. Some videos posted online showed the simians scurrying about the streets of the city or climbing over rooftops.

    “It is not a good practice [to feed animals when you go hiking on the MHNP trails or other hilly areas] as human-fed food item will have bad impacts on their health,” Ali said, adding that monkeys have lived in the national park since before humans inhabited this region.

    Ali, however, noted that the monkeys were not hostile to human beings and only attack or become violent when someone tries to hurt them.

    He advised the public to stay calm if they encountering any monkey. Moreover, he suggested that people keep their food items secure in their stores and not offer animals anything.

    Ali also advised people to take care of their clothes and the laundry hung out to dry.

    “Monkeys have a habit to take away clothes left outside a house if they find nothing in their search of food,” the IWMB officer warned.