A three-and-a-half-year-old female leopard caught in a snare at Athad Estate in Norwood has been freed by wildlife officers and taken to the Randenigala Veterinary Unit for treatment.
The animal was found trapped on estate land belonging to the Bagawantalawa Plantation Company, within the Norwood Divisional Secretariat Division, the Daily Mirror reported on Friday morning. The rescue took place on Thursday.
The rescue
Officers from the Nallathanniya Wildlife Office launched the operation after receiving information about the trapped animal. They first cleared the area of onlookers to stop the leopard becoming further agitated — a standard precaution, and one that also reduces the risk to bystanders from an animal that is both frightened and restrained.
A team made up of wildlife officers and a veterinarian from the Randenigala Veterinary Unit then freed the leopard from the snare and moved her to the unit.
Her condition
Dr. Akalanka Pinidiya, Chief Veterinary Officer at Randenigala, said the leopard was feeding normally. She will remain under medical care for a few days before being released back into her natural habitat.
The filing gives no description of her injuries, and does not say what type of snare was involved or how long she had been caught.
Snares in the plantation districts
Wire snares set for wild boar and deer are the most common cause of leopard injury in Sri Lanka’s hill-country estates. They are indiscriminate: an animal that walks into one is held by a limb or the neck, and the damage is often done not by the wire itself but by the hours or days of struggle that follow.
The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is an endemic subspecies listed as endangered, and the fragmented tea-estate landscape of the Central and Uva highlands is one of the areas where its range overlaps most closely with human activity. This desk has previously reported leopards moving through the University of Peradeniya and Hanthana and the arrests that follow leopard-skin seizures, which are prosecuted under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance.
That an animal of this age was found alive and feeding is the better outcome of the two these incidents usually produce.
Sourcing
This is a single-source report. Checks of the Hiru News rail, the NewsFirst homepage payload and the EconomyNext rail on Friday found no other verified newsroom carrying the Norwood rescue. The Daily Mirror filing carries a reporter byline.
Not reported
The filing does not say who set the snare, whether anyone has been identified or arrested, or whether the Department of Wildlife Conservation is investigating. It gives no detail of the leopard’s injuries, does not say where she will be released, and does not state whether other snares were found on the estate.