Students and staff at the University of Peradeniya have been warned to stay alert after dark, with leopards moving into the campus at night from the neighbouring Hanthana hill range.
A calf at the livestock farm run by the university’s Veterinary Faculty was killed in the early hours of Thursday morning and part of the carcass eaten, the Daily Mirror reported. CCTV cameras recorded the leopard taking the animal.
A senior university official said students have been advised to be cautious when moving around the campus after dusk.
The Peradeniya campus sits at the foot of the Hanthana range outside Kandy, and its grounds run up against forested hill country that forms part of the leopards’ natural range. Sightings on the edges of the university have been reported before, but a confirmed kill inside a faculty facility is a more direct sign of how far the animals are ranging.
Sri Lanka’s leopard, a subspecies found nowhere else, is classed as vulnerable, and encounters with people have become more frequent as development and cultivation press further into hill-country habitat. Wildlife officials generally advise against attempting to drive the animals away, since cornered leopards are far more likely to attack.
The Daily Mirror report did not say whether the Department of Wildlife Conservation has been asked to intervene, or what measures the university plans to take to secure the livestock farm.
