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Jorhat, Assam, August 07, 2017: A Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) team from IFAW-WTI’s Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) recently attended to a sub-adult male leopard that had been caught in a trap cage set by the Assam Forest Department in Hunwal Tea Estate, close to Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary.

The CWRC veterinarian tranquillised the animal, performed a health assessment, and recorded its morphometry before transferring it to a transport cage.

The DFO of the forest department’s Jorhat Division contacted CWRC on August 3 to provide the requisite technical and veterinary assistance prior to the big cat’s transport and release back into the wild. As the trap cage was not suitable for the leopard to be transported, CWRC veterinarian Dr Samshul Ali tranquillised the animal, performed a basic health assessment, and as per protocol recorded its morphometry before transferring it to a transport cage provided by the forest department.

“The leopard was a healthy 21kg”, Dr Ali said. “As a sub-adult, it had probably separated from its mother in the recent past and was in the process of trying to establish its own territory. It was kept under observation for seven hours and deemed fit for release once the sedative wore off and it began to exhibit its instinctive behaviour. We also implanted a microchip so that the animal can be identified at a later date if required.”

A forest department team from Mariani Territorial Range released the leopard into the nearby Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary later that evening.