NEWSLINK: Wildlife warden demands SIT probe into Rajaji leopard poaching incident

Uttarakhand chief wildlife warden DVS Khati has demanded a special investigation team (SIT) probe into seizure of leopard skin in Rajaji Tiger Reserve’s core area on March 22.


Khati made the demand in a letter he wrote to additional chief secretary Ranbir Singh on April 25.
So far, a man has been arrested in connection with the case.


Citing findings of a previous investigation conducted by Komal Singh, acting warden Rajaji, Khati has mentioned that role of a few senior forest officers and employees was dubious supporting his demand for the probe.


“I have requested the SIT investigation for a transparent investigation from the government,” Khati said.

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VIDEO: Rare sighting of Leopard eating a Cheetah

It’s unusual for big cats to prey on each other, but as this video shows, it certainly can happen.

A visitor to the Kruger National Park uploaded this video with the explanation that it happened before the Easter weekend, about 3km south of the Tshokwane picnic site on the tar road, reports Lowvelder.


For a leopard to kill a cheetah may prove that stealth is ultimately more effective than speed.

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UK: All the times big cats have been sighted in Essex

You may think it would be quite rare to see a panther roaming the fields of Essex, but there have been big cat sightings across the county for decades.

The so-called 'Beast of Essex' is thought to look like a black panther or puma.

Legends of a black ghost dog, known as the black shuck, have existed across East Anglia and Essex for centuries.

A midwife in the 1930s allegedly spotted the dog when riding home one night in Tolleshunt D'Arcy.

But sightings of the dog are far less common than those of big cats in Essex.

The most recent sightings in Sible Hedingham and Great Notley have sparked yet more debate over the beast's existence.

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NEWSLINK: Reported black panther sighting in bushland near Emu Plains

Greg Culley and his 13-year-old son Samuel were walking in bushland north of Knapsack Reserve by Lapstone Creek on April 14 when they heard a tree branch rustling about 20 metres away.

“There was a thud like something came out of the tree. We thought it was a roo. But it was a large, shiny, black animal as big as a German Shepherd,” Mr Culley said.

“It was a big mass of black, flying at stealth mode along the ridge. Sammy saw the tail. It moved like a cat.”

Mr Culley believed it was too big to be a feral cat, nor did he think it was a kangaroo. He took a photo of leaf litter he believed was scattered on the ground as the panther made its swift departure.

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NEWSLINK: The Asiatic lion thrives in Gujarat’s Gir Forest Reserve

In Gujarat’s Gir Forest Reserve, the last home of the Asiatic lion, the big cats have been falling into open wells, running into electrified fences, getting hit by trains, and dying in other unnatural ways.


The deaths are, in an odd way, a measure of Gir’s success at conserving the lion.


The numbers have risen to such an extent that more and more lions are venturing outside the reserve’s protected areas. Nevertheless, Guin jarat has set about trying to find a way to minimise these unnecessary deaths.

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NEWSLINK: Rarest big cats in the world battle back from edge of extinction

The world’s rarest big cat, the Amur leopard, has reached a significant milestone in a battle against extinction – with 100 of the animals now living in the wild in a nature reserve in Russia.


Ten years ago, the number of wild Amur leopards had fallen to 30, and scientists feared the species was on the brink.


The species remains highly endangered, but scans by experts in Russia’s Land of the Leopard Nature Reserve in 2017 showed 100 animals, with 84 adults, living wild in the area.

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NEWSLINK: Panic in Narela school after leopard spotted inside

A suspected leopard sighting at a Kendriya Vidyalaya School at Air Force Station, Ghoga, complex in Narela, north Delhi, spooked the authorities and students on Tuesday.


The big cat was spotted by a team of patrolling security officers when it crossed their vehicle around 12 am on Monday night. Apparently, they also shot a video of it.

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PHOTOS: Extra-large mystery cat spooking neighbours in East County

Images of an extra-large mystery cat have opened a lot of eyes in East San Diego County community of Descanso.


Off Viejas Grade Road, a wildlife camera on the land of Allen Walker's neighbor captured the video one evening last week. It shows a large cat walking along a trail not far from homes. Bobcats are routinely filmed by the camera, but Walker says this one appeared twice as big as the typical one.


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NEWSLINK: Bolivia’s jaguars facing threat from Chinese fang craze

Bolivia’s once-thriving jaguar population is loping into the cross-hairs of a growing threat from poachers responding to growing Chinese demand for the animal’s teeth and skull. Researchers believe there are around 7,000 of the speckled big cats in Bolivia, out of a global population of some 64,000, stretching from North America to Argentina. But such is the appetite in China’s huge underground market that “if controls are not put in place, it can lead to a serious problem” for their survival, warned Fabiola Suarez of the Environment Ministry.

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NEWSLINK: A leopard dies each week in Rajasthan, reveals survey

Leopards, which are listed at par with tigers under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, are crying for equal protection in Rajasthan.

Since the beginning of this year, a leopard death has been recorded every week in some or the other parts of the state. A big concern is that more than half of these killings are said to be unnatural—caused by road accidents, electrocution or due to man-animal conflicts.

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ARTICLE: The time a leopard escaped on a busy Plymouth street, and it didn't end well

Regular readers may have seen our recent story on the late lamented Plymouth Zoo in Central Park.


Fellow local historian Gerald Barker wrote to The Herald regarding an incident involving one of the big cats from the zoo many years ago.

He wrote to the Police Headquarters for information and some time later he received a call from Edgar Horton, a former police sergeant who was on duty one fateful day in Plymouth in the mid-1970s.


He said: "I was on early shift, 6am-2pm, when I received a phone call from one of the zoo keepers telling me that a leopard had escaped from its cage.

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NEWSLINK: Three days after translocation, tiger RT-91 makes first kill in Mukundra reserve

A male tiger--RT-91—that was translocated from Ranthambore to the Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR) in Rajasthan’s Kota earlier this month, killed its first prey on April 3, state wildlife officials said on Saturday.

The adult tiger killed a buffalo inside the reserve, three days after being tranquilized and relocated to the MHTR, said deputy conservator of forest (MHTR) T Mohanraj.

The tiger didn’t kill a prey for the first three days of its stay at the reserve as it had already been fed at the Ramgarh Vishdhari sanctuary but finally the big cat made its first kill within the reserve on April 7, where 22 cheetahs and two buffaloes were kept as the prey base, he said.

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NEWSLINK: Six tigers from Madhya Pradesh to find new home in Odisha in April

Six tigers from Madhya Pradesh will be relocated to Satkosia Tiger Reserve in Odisha next month. They have all been identified as ‘dispersing tigers’ — those that frequently leave the limits of the sanctuary to seek new territory. In Satkosia, we have good tiger habitat and prey base but insufficient tigers. With just one pair of tigers left, Satkosia is on the brink of losing its coveted tag, said an official of National Tiger Conservation Authority NTCA ).Two young tigers each from Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Panna tiger reserves in MP will get a new home. Panna MLA Kusum Mehdele, who is a minister, had raised the issue of this tigress and the need to solve “tiger dispersal problem” at a cabinet meeting in January this year.

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VIDEO: Porcupine takes on seven lions, with an incredible result

In the remarkable footage, the group of big cats are seen cautiously approaching their prey.


But the porcupine’s spiky exterior proves a problem for the hungry lions.


They are unable to bite it without getting a painful poke.


Incredibly, the far smaller animal even charges at the lions in an attempt to force them away.


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ARTICLE: Stalking Big Cats: The Mountain Lion and Me

On a freezing night near his home in Paradise Valley, Montana, wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson huddled in a nylon tent pitched within an abandoned barn strewn with animal bones and carcasses.


Shooting with a Red Epic Dragon camera amped up with an infrared filter and a Canon 200-400mm lens, Anderson hoped to capture images of one of the most elusive predators in North America: a mountain lion whose tracks he had followed from his own front yard.

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NEWSLINK: Wild boars kill six year-old tiger

An adult tiger was found dead in a fight with a wild boar in Balaghat district. The six year-old tiger’s carcass was spotted in Balaghat’s Logur range. Firstly, the forest officials thought that the tiger was electrocuted or poisoned, but after no evidence was found during post-mortem.


An officer told that “Fight with wild boars seems to be only reason as we have found boar hair and faecal samples on the spot.” DFO Deva Prasad said that the matter is still under investigation. “Wild boars could be the reason,” said the officer.


Balaghat is one of the non-protected areas in Kanha-Pench corridor where density of both tiger and prey is comparatively high.

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PHOTO: Villagers In Spiti Valley First Captured A Snow Leopard Then Set It Free

The strikingly beautiful snow leopard had reportedly strayed into a village

Incredible footage shared by news agency ANI shows villagers from Himachal Pradesh's Spiti Valley setting a snow leopard free after capturing it. The wildcat had reportedly strayed into a village. Snow leopards, often described as elusive, roving, high altitude cats, are rarely sighted.


According to ANI, villagers had spotted the snow leopard in a residential area. Instead of attacking or killing the elusive wildcat, however, villagers decided to capture it and set it free in a more remote area.

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PHOTO: Woman fights off ‘tiger’ with a stick, posts selfie on FB

A 23-year-old woman fought off a tiger single-handedly armed with nothing but a stick and scared it off.

According to the BBC, the incident took place in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district on March 24 when Rupali Meshram, a commerce graduate finishing the daily chores heard the goat screaming in panic.
Rupali ran out only to discover the largest species of big cats had attacked them.

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VIDEO: Endangered Manchurian tiger park celebrating bumper delivery from star breeder

The Manchurian tiger is one of the world's most endangered species, so every new birth is vital to protecting the big cats' future.


So when a mother delivers quintuplets it's a definite cause for celebration.


Heilongjiang Manchurian Tiger Park's 11-year-old mum has done it before, with quadruplets in 2014 and quintuplets in 2015.

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NEWSLINK: Tiger attacks against humans spike in winter in UP’s conflict-ridden Terai region

Attacks by tigers and leopards on humans and livestock in Uttar Pradesh’s Terai region marked a seasonal and geographical variation, according to a report jointly undertaken by the Wildlife Trust of India and the Uttar Pradesh Forest department. The report, Living with the Wild—Mitigating Conflict between Humans and Big Cat Species in Uttar Pradesh, was released last Tuesday by UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.


According to the report, most attacks occured during the day time, suggesting “that the larger proportion of tiger attacks on humans were accidental encounters.”

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