SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A rare leopard captured in a village in the Kurdistan Region after injuring two people last week, according to authorities.
Selman Tamar, head of Kurdistan organization to protect animal rights, said the Persian leopard was captured in Zreza village near Batifa district in Zakho administration on Thursday.
The leopard had injured two people last week after they tried to help the big cat caught in a shepherd’s trap, Tamar told Esta Media Network.
Residents of the village lost 25 sheep before realizing a leopard was attacking their flocks.
The leopard sustained a wound to its back leg when it was caught in the trap, but managed to escape before villagers helped track it down.
The leopard was given anaesthetic before it was captured, Tamar noted.
“Leopards had been found dead several times in Duhok, but it is the first time we see a leopard that is alive,” he said.
Tamar, who conducted the amputation at Duhok zoo on Friday, told AFP that the animal weighed around 90-100 kilograms (200-220 pounds).
“We will monitor it for a long time,” he was quoted as saying. “If it can’t be returned to the wild, it will live at the zoo.”
Persian leopards are a panther sub-species to Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus, according to AFP.
They are extremely rare and have been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), AFP reported.
Fewer than 1,000 are believed to exist in the wild, with another 200 in captivity.
