Friday 31 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Trap and cage Aarey leopards: Shiv Sena minister's shocker

Ravindra and Ravindra are giving Shiv Sena a bad name. The party was left red-faced yesterday by the outrageous behaviour and words of not one but two of its problem children. While on Wednesday, MLA Ravindra Waikar had demanded that all leopards be ousted from their natural habitat, yesterday Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad thrashed an Air India staffer with his sandal, and then unabashedly bragged about it.

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NEWSLINK/VIDEO: Exotic ‘Savannah Cat’ Found Roaming The Streets Of Paterson, NJ

An exotic feline was resting Thursday, after being found out and about, prowling around Passaic County.


Snuggled up inside a cage at Wildlife Freedom Animal Rescue in Wanaque, was a newly acquired, exotic Savannah cat.


It was picked up Thursday morning, by animal control after it was found behind a pool on Mill Street in Paterson.


Residents saw the spotted animal — unsure exactly what kind of cat it was.

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PHOTOS: Big Cat Rescue welcomes 2 bobcats from failed Alabama Zoo

Two bobcats rescued from a failed zoo in Mobile, Alabama are arriving at their new home at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa Friday morning.


The cats were rescued along with several other animals during a secret raid of The Mobile Zoo. The zoo was shut down and its license revoked by USDA in November 2016. Last week the owner of the zoo was arrested on 28 counts of animal cruelty.

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NEWSLINK: Water sprinklers and frozen food for Maharajbagh zoo inmates this summer

It's still March and temperature in the city has already crossed 40 degrees. Obviously, it doesn't augur well for the coming months that are looming large, with monsoons still quite far away. In such a situation, when humans are seeking resort in chilled drinks and staying indoors, the inmates of Maharajbagh Zoo are also being pampered in special ways

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NEWSLINK: Finding a new home: Tigers from highly-congested Corbett park to be relocated

The big cats of Corbett will soon find a new home in Uttarakhand.


The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has asked the state forest department to speed up the ground work for relocation of four tigers from the highly congested Corbett landscape to Rajaji National Park, which has 15 felines.


Once the step is taken, most probably by the end of the year, it will be the first relocation of tigers in India to a habitat that already has big cats.

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Thursday 30 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Slaughterhouse crackdown in UP: Uttarakhand’s leopards too on a chicken diet

Poor Ruby is on a forced diet of poultry — kinda chicken feed for a grown-up girl who needs at least 6kg of protein-and fat-rich meat, either buffalo or goat, to keep her fit and agile.


The eight-year-old Ruby and six fellow leopards at Uttarakhand’s Chidiyapur animal rescue centre, on the outskirts of holy town Haridwar, are off their favourite diet after the crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.


And, a shoestring budget doesn’t allow the forest department to buy goat meat or mutton — more expensive than buffalo meat and poultry fowls, for the full-grown leopards in an age bracket of seven and nine years.


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ARTICLE: Big cats & dogs: Can they co-exist in Buxa?

A never-before experiment in Bengal — to reintroduce tigers in a forest that has not reported a steady sighting of the big cat for nearly three decades — has raised questions about the pitfalls of tinkering with nature.


The National Tiger Conservation Authority, a wing of the Union ministry of environment and forests, and the state have decided to relocate at least six Bengal tigers from Assam to the Buxa tiger reserve (BTR) in north Bengal. But Buxa has not had an officially recognised tiger sighting since the early 1990s and this vacuum has been filled up by a host of smaller predators, like leopards, clouded leopards and wild dogs.

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Wednesday 29 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Panther Kittens Have Been Seen Outside Their Florida Territory for the First Time Since 1973

For the first time since 1973, endangered panther kittens have been spotted north of Florida's Caloosahatchee River - evidence that despite all odds, these big cats are actually expanding their range.

Until now, only male panthers have been spotted north of the river, and for decades it was assumed that the females refused or were unable to cross it. But new images of healthy kittens have revealed that the Florida panther population could still be maintaining its unlikely increase.

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Tuesday 28 March 2017

SIGHTING, UK: Photos of 'big cat the size of a Labrador' on the loose near a busy road in Scotland

A postman has spotted a 'big cat' roaming the fields on the outskirts of Inverness.


Paul Dawson took a picture of the black cat with his 300mm long-lens camera at the weekend in a field close to Milton of Leys in the Scottish Highlands.


He says he was standing around 600yards away from the animal with a long black tail that appeared much larger than a domestic cat when he pictured it.

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PHOTOS: Tiger Cubs: A Sign of Hope in Thailand

Every success in the conservation world is worth celebrating—no matter what species, location or size of impact. But some feel more significant than others… and the recent news out of Thailand is a perfect example.


In Thailand, Panthera has partnered with the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) and Freeland Foundation to study, monitor, and protect the country’s tigers. As part of our research, we recently conducted a survey in the Thailand’s Eastern Forest Complex to estimate the area’s tiger population—the first survey of its kind in this location.

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Sunday 26 March 2017

NEWSLINK: China Is Creating a Huge Sanctuary to Save Endangered Big Cats

In an effort to step up its existing protections for big cats, China has announced plans to create a 5,600-square-mile nature reserve.

In the past, China has been criticized for not doing enough to protect its last remaining big cats from human encroachment, land clearing and poaching. Tigers, for instance, are particularly vulnerable to wildlife trafficking, fetching large sums of money on the black market.

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NEWSLINK: NTCA begins probe into tiger's death

The National Tiger Conservation Authority today began its investigation into the death of a tiger allegedly due to injuries sustained while it was being captured by forest guards.

The three-member NTCA team, which arrived yesterday, has already begun its probe into the death of the tiger at Nainital Zoo recently, Chief conservator of Forest Digvijay Singh Khati said.

The tiger which had killed two persons in Bailpadav range of Ramnagar forest recently had died at the Nainital Zoo hours after being captured by the forest department, he said.

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Friday 24 March 2017

NEWSLINK: 14yr old boy is savaged by a cheetah at South African safari park ‘that allows visitors to STROKE the killer big cats’

A kiwi boy was mauled by a cheetah after being allowed to pet the big cat – and he was only saved when his dad wrestled it to the ground.


Isaac Driver, 14, had been allowed to stroke two of the animals at a South African nature reserve.

But as he tried to walk away, a cheetah ran at him and knocked him to the ground leaving him injured.


He was only saved when his dad Dave tore into the cheetah, pinning it to the ground and holding it down at the Emdoneni Safari Park in Zululand KwaZulu-Natal province.


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SIGHTING, UK: Father and son, 5, startled by two big cats near Welwyn Garden City

A startled walker has told of his encounters with two mysterious big cats in Times Territory.


The 37-year-old man, who wished to remain anonymous, was on a customary evening walk around Tewin with his five-year-old son about six weeks ago when the toddler excitedly pointed into the distance and asked what it was he could see.


Standing in the open field about 400 metres away were two large “dusty, sandy coloured” big cats, coming to just below waist height, with long, dark tails.


Startled, the observer said did not know what they were, but was “100 per cent” sure they were big cats from their movements.

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Wednesday 22 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Big cats prowling Welwyn Hatfield, Freedom of Information request reveals

Herts Police confirmed that between 2011 and 2016 there were 26 reports of big cats prowling in the wild.

The majority (11) were of a panther, with one informant, in 2011, saying that after seeing a sheep being eaten by a panther, they “ran all the way home and our dog was going crazy, barking and yelping”.

Of the 26 reported sightings, nine were classified as unknown species, but shared similar characteristics with callers telling the police the big cats were “very large” or the same size as a Labrador, brown or gingery in colour – and in one incident, just 20ft from the informant.

A farmer in the north Hatfield area informed the police of multiple sightings on their property of a panther.

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SIGHTING, UK: 'Cheetah' spotted in Barnet prompts police call

Of all the calls received by the Metropolitan Police this year, few will have been as perplexing as one reporting a cheetah roaming the streets of London.


Newly released records reveal that last January a worried member of the public dialed 999 after appearing to see one of the big cats prowling the borough of Barnet.

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Tuesday 21 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Mysterious ‘beast’ believed to be roaming Scottish Highlands stripping all the flesh off sheep and eating them

A large “cat” with a taste for mutton is believed to be roaming the most remote parts of northern Scotland, stripping sheep from their skin and leaving no trace but bones and wool.

The mysterious beast's latest catch is a hefty and healthy ewe of about 50kg. Her wool was neatly peeled off her skin before it was eaten. The carcass was found less than 100 yards from a croft in Swordly at the weekend.

The ewe belonged to Susan Mackay, who is not the first crofter to fall victim of the unknown animal.

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NEWSLINK: Black panther sighting on Derbyshire border should be taken ‘very seriously’

A wildlife expert says the potential sighting of a black panther off the A38 should be taken "very seriously".


The animal was spotted by dad-of-three Matt Chambers who says he was driving back from work when he saw "the biggest cat I have seen in my life" in a field on the Derbyshire border between Egginton and Stretton.


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Monday 20 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Andhra child adopts stray kittens that turn out to be leopards

For two days, a six-year-old tribal boy was busy playing with two cats he had found in the neighbourhood, totally unaware that they were big cats. He found the leopard cubs in the bushes near his house and brought them home, feeding them milk. His parents had no inkling the ‘kittens’ their son had ‘adopted’ were cubs, until the neighbours noticed the spots.


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PHOTOS: Photographing snow leopards in the Himalayas

The snow leopard is one of the most elusive creatures on the planet, living in one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Here Wildscreen Exchange and Arkive contributor Craig Jones shares with us his experience in tracking and photographing this mysterious and endangered big cat in the Himalayan mountains.

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Wednesday 15 March 2017

VIDEO: Dogs chase away leopard from apartment complex


A pack of dogs chased a young leopard out of an apartment complex at Goregaon on Tuesday night. 

The feat was captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera on the premises, the forest department said.

The incident took place at Girikunj Society at Dindoshi, Goregaon (East), which adjacent to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Several leopards have been seen in the area in recent months but local residents said this was the first time one entered their society.

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PHOTOS: Another new jaguar spotted in S. Arizona mountains

A previously unknown jaguar is prowling the mountains of Southern Arizona, officials have confirmed — the second documented within months and the third photographed here since 2012.

The big cat was photographed by an automatic trail camera in November in the Dos Cabezas Mountains, about 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.

The camera data was only retrieved last week, and Arizona Game and Fish Department scientists analyzed the spot patterns on the photographed jaguar, concluding that the animal had not been previously spotted. They were unable to determine the animal's sex.

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Wednesday 8 March 2017

NEWSLINK: Chubby Siberian Tigers In China Placed On Post-Winter Diet

The Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, is helping more than 300 Siberian tigers to lose weight by adding more exercise to their daily routine and cutting back on their food intake.

Photos of the tigers circulated online and received wide attention from netizens, who compared the endangered big cats to orange tabby cats such as comic-strip character Garfield.

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ARTICLE: Will Africa’s Big Five become extinct in the wild?

A hundred years ago, our planet teemed with wildlife. Theodore Roosevelt saw it for himself, when shortly after leaving office as 26th President of the United States he explored Africa for months, collecting thousands of specimens for the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. 

His expedition bagged hundreds of animals, shooting and stripping them of their hides and other body parts for salting and shipping to Washington, where they formed the basis of what is still today one of the world’s most comprehensive natural history collections.

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Tuesday 7 March 2017

PHOTOS: The “mane” event: a birthday party for lions

If a first responder does not already have Bobbi Brink, co-founder of Lions Tigers & Bears Exotic Animal Rescue Sanctuary in Alpine on speed dial they should consider it. Why? Brink is accustomed to dealing with exotic animals and if a catastrophic event happens (flooding, wild fires plus). Brink can show up and help handle the movement of that exotic animal.


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NEWSLINK: Leopards, Tigers, and Dholes Coexist With Less Conflict

Researchers found in India's mountains that cats and dogs can be mutual. Wild dogs and leopards can still coexist and be mutual.

Basically, cats and dogs whether big or small species always fight upon seeing each other. One another would like to defend its territory as well as compete for their prey.

However, with the use of non-invasive cameras to record the interaction of wild cats and wild dogs, researchers were able to find out a surprising mutual interaction between the two animals, Mail Online reported. Big cats and dogs in India were found in the study getting along with each other in a mutual benefit.

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Sunday 5 March 2017

VIDEO: Big cats like head scratches too

Watch Voodoo the leopard get spoiled with affection at Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory and Education Center in Kansas. You're going to want to turn your volume up to hear Voodoo's reaction.

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NEWSLINK: Florida panther hit and killed by car

Even though Florida panther numbers are slightly on the rise, the big cats are still being killed in higher numbers every year.


The Associated Press reports that on Tuesday, Feb. 28, a 3-year-old male cat's body was found on a rural road in DeSoto County, Florida.

So far, this marks the fifth panther death in 2017, with three of those deaths marked as vehicle fatalities.

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