The Hangzhou money leopard was out for many days until the incident hit the hot list and local officials sent out a search party. (Web Photo)
The official response to the Hangzhou leopard infestation was negative, until the incident hit the top of the search list, the authorities conducted a major search, the local wildlife world only admitted that three “juvenile leopards” escaped. The local media reported earlier that the leopards had been captured, but the latest news is that there is a suspected adult leopard at large, and the park has been hiding it for more than half a month.
In response to the escape of the leopard from Hangzhou Wildlife World, local officials held a press conference on the 10th. The official said that the leopard escape happened on April 19, because of the management’s negligence, the leopard escaped during its cleaning. However, the top management of the park decided to hide the news from the public for the sake of income from the May Day holiday.
The park claimed to have confirmed that only three “subadult, captive-bred” leopards, two and a half years old, one male and two females, had escaped.
The official said that after the leopards escaped, Wildlife World searched independently and caught one with a tranquilizer gun on April 21, and another one was caught in the mountains near Wildlife World during the official search on May 8. The city’s secretary is currently in charge and thousands of personnel are still searching for a third.
In response to questions from the public that a captured leopard may have suffered a broken palm, the park said that it was due to “problems with the angle of shooting at night” and that the leopard was currently “healthy”.
However, the webcam clearly shows that one of the leopard’s hind paws is suspected to be broken and missing, and the wound has obvious blood and is not bandaged. The related topic is on the Weibo hot search list.
In the footage reported by CCTV, one of the leopard’s hind paws can be clearly seen missing. (Screenshot of the video)
Netizens suspect that the leopard was bitten by an official, virulent dog during a major search and seizure on May 8. Earlier, a video was also released showing an official search and rescue dog mobbing a leopard during a search that night, with the searchers shouting “bite it to death”. The leopard is a first-class protected animal, and if it was injured during the search, the people involved may be held legally responsible.
In addition, the authorities claim that the escaped are three immature leopards, but the local media recently quoted an old tea farmer who first witnessed the leopard revealed that he had witnessed the same leopard on May 2 and 3, weighing 70 to 80 pounds, should be an adult leopard. And he judged from the photos of the two immature leopards that had been caught, they only weighed 20 or 30 pounds, and the leopard he saw was not right.
The old tea farmer said someone in the village said he had seen the leopard six months ago. He said he hopes the leopard he saw is the third leopard lost by Wildlife World, because that at least means there is no fourth leopard in the area.
The official press conference claimed that the leopard’s escape occurred on April 19, more than ten days earlier than the earlier news. Previously, the mainland media reported that local residents kept informing officials and taking photos and videos of the leopard after it was spotted in early May. But it was only after the incident hit the microblogging hot list on the 7th that officials sent out a large number of people to search and capture three leopards on the 8th, one of which was bitten to death by a search and rescue dog.
Before that, Hangzhou Wildlife World had been denying to the media that a leopard had escaped. The park issued an apology letter afterwards, saying that it was “worried that the announcement of the incident would cause panic”.
Recent Comments