Leopard cub gets separated from mother, forest official blames ‘human touch’
MEERUT : A human error separated a one-month-old female leopard cub from its mother, possibly forever.
On April 2, villagers of Bhagwanpur Khadar, in Kithore area of the district, spotted a leopard’s cub in the bushes while they were working in their field.
They brought the cub to the village and spent about two hours with it when a villager informed forest officials about the cub.
The forest officials arrived there and took the cub to their office, where it was fed milk through syringe for five days.
Meerut divisional forest officer (DFO) Rajesh Kumar said that “taking the cub to the village and keeping it with humans was a big error, which eventually separated the mother from the cub, possibly forever.”
Kumar said this happens due to ‘human imprinting’ on the cub. “Animals of the cat family are very particular about smell, and they avoid anything containing human smell. Villagers held the cub in their hands, which put human imprint on it,” he said.
He said forest department staff made four attempts to reunite the cub with its mother by leaving it at the same place where it was found. He claimed the mother leopard arrived there but returned without taking the cub along.
Failing in their efforts to reunite the cub with its mother, the DFO discussed the issue with his seniors and sent the cub, which they named ‘Simbi’, to Gorakhpur zoo on March 8.
Kumar said the cub was sent to Gorakhpur zoo under supervision of a doctor and two forest staffers and it reached the zoo safely.
Former wildlife ADG, government of India, Vinod Rishi, however said that it seems more a case of the cub’s mother’s instinct to ensure safety for it. “The mother cub might have moved away from the spot along with other cubs, finding it an unsafe place for her cubs,” said Rishi, who doubted that human imprinting could be the reason behind abandoning the cub.
But the DFO claimed that mother leopard was spotted around the place where the cub was left but she didn’t take it with her because “human smell on cub could be a strong reason for giving abandoning it.” When last reports came in the cub was doing well in Gorakhpur zoo.
Kumar said forest staff had been deputed around the spot to ensure safety of villagers. “We can’t take risk the lives of villagers as the leopard could revisit the spot,” he said.