The "leopard concealment" storm in Hangzhou Wildlife World has not subsided so far, because only two of the three leopards who fled the country have been found, and one remains without a message. Wildlife experts say the third leopard is either dead or hidden in the wild.
According to the official news of Sichuan Daily, an injured leopard was found on the G227 national highway in Sichuan, lying in the middle of the road, dying. After the news came out, many netizens said that this would not be the third leopard to escape from Hangzhou? In this regard, this speculation was directly rejected by the authorities.
At about 5:00 a.m. on November 28, someone found a leopard on the G227 national highway, it was lying in the middle of the road, it seemed to be injured, because the leopard was an aggressive large predator, so people did not dare to look closely, so they chose to call the police.
Xinlong County's forest police and forestry bureau personnel quickly rushed to the scene to check and found that it was an adult male leopard, which is also the golden leopard in the national population.
Judging from the situation at the scene, it can be ruled out that it is a "road killing" factor such as vehicle impact, and there is no sign of human injury, and the abdominal hair has traces of mucus licking, so rescuers infer that they have suffered serious internal injuries.
Leopards are a predator with a strong sense of territory, especially among male leopards, and the competition will be particularly fierce. Judging from the indications of the on-site investigation, the rescuers deduced that it was related to the same kind of fighting.
The two leopards clashed over turf or other reasons, and the leopard unfortunately fell off a cliff nearly 20 meters high next to the road, so he suffered serious internal injuries.
At that time, although the leopard was still alive, it was too badly injured to stand up. Although people immediately contacted the Ya'an Bifengxia Wildlife Rescue Center, unfortunately, on the way to transportation, the leopard died of his injuries.
Netizens speculated that this leopard would not be the one who fled from Hangzhou, and the relevant experts directly denied it, why is this? There are two main reasons for this:
Age does not match
Age is a very obvious feature, and the three leopards that escaped from Hangzhou Wildlife World are all sub-adults. Leopards reach sexual maturity at about 24-28 months before they leave the mother leopard to spread out and establish their own territory.
Male leopards, who have just reached the peak of their physical fitness, rarely participate in battles, and they will gradually become stronger in the process of living alone, and will not challenge other male leopards until they reach their prime.
The injured leopard found on the Sichuan highway is a mature male leopard, both in terms of body maturity and the phenomenon of its struggle with its kind. Even if seven months have passed, the "third" leopard in Hangzhou will not be able to reach this age.
Lack of ecological corridors
Hangzhou to Sichuan, may be something that a leopard can do by walking? Even if a leopard, like a tiger, has significant exploratory behavior and a high degree of mobility, it is hard to believe that the span is so large, let alone a sub-adult leopard with no experience in the wild.
In addition, there is a very important factor, that is, so far, China has many cities, populations, roads, most of the wildlife habitat is scattered distribution, and the lack of corresponding ecological corridors, wildlife populations are difficult to get communication.
Hangzhou to Sichuan, spanning many provinces, in the absence of corresponding ecological corridors, want not to clash with humans, not to be witnessed, this probability is almost zero.
A very important project in the "Cat Alliance" "Take the Leopard Home", if you want to spread the North China leopard from Shanxi and Hebei all the way along the Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains to the suburbs of Beijing, it is to use the role of ecological corridors, but it is still working hard, it is conceivable that in today's environment, it is very difficult to want wild animals to spread and migrate for a long time.
It's so hard to have human help, let alone a sub-adult captive leopard that has been hunted down?
The injured leopard found on the G227 national highway in Sichuan should be a local leopard in Xinlong County, because Xinlong County itself is a county with very rich animal resources.
Among other things, there are 12 species of wild cats in China, and There are 7 species of wild cats in Xinlong County alone, namely: golden leopard, snow leopard, rabbit lynx, Asian golden cat, desert cat, ocelot, so it is also known as the "land of seven cats", and it is also the only county in China with 7 kinds of cats.
After the general absence of tigers, the "boss" of the beast in Xinlong County is undoubtedly the leopard, thanks to the results of the country's ecological environment construction and animal protection work in recent years, the leopard population across the country has shown a recovery trend, of course, including Xinlong County, where the number of leopards is growing every year.
Why is Xinlong County so rich in feline resources? Geographically, Xinlong County is located in the middle of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, belonging to the contact zone between the Hengduan Mountains and the Mountain Plains of Western Sichuan, most of which are deep mountains with traffic blockages, so the ecological environment has been relatively well preserved since ancient times, a large number of wild animals have been multiplied here, and natural animal resources are relatively rich.
The injured leopard found on the road this time is a normal phenomenon of fighting between wild animals, after all, the fight between the same kind in the big cat is very fierce, and many times the inferior party will be killed by the strong side.
Of the three leopards who escaped from Hangzhou, one remained untraceable, but it was almost impossible for it to come to Sichuan alone from Hangzhou. The injured leopard found in Ganzi, Sichuan, should be a local leopard, but it was defeated in the same kind of competition, and it happened to be seen by people, and it had nothing to do with the leopard in Hangzhou.