The third golden leopard that escaped is still not found. At about 1 a.m. on May 9, a search team used a drone to find the whereabouts of the third leopard on the hill southwest of Longwu Cycling Park near Hejia Village, but unfortunately it was finally allowed to run away.
The search continues. At 9:30 a.m., a number of search forces such as civilian rescue teams, special police, forest firefighters, and militias gathered at the gate of Hangzhou Wildlife World.
At the entrance of the safari park, the Fuyang pioneer rescue team is assembling. Photo/Jo Star
The Wuhan Morning Post reporter learned from a search and rescue team that the daytime search sites on this day mainly revolved around the vicinity of Hejia Village and Longmenkan Village, where the whereabouts were discovered; the three civilian rescue teams of the Fuyang Emergency Pioneer Rescue Team, the Fuyang Gongwolf Rescue Team, and the Wild Wolf Rescue Team were mainly mixed with the Fuyang special police into a multi-road military and civilian team under the unified deployment of the police command center.
Three search and rescue teams dispatched more than ten dogs, and the soldiers climbed the West Mountain from multiple entrances in six ways to search.
At 10 a.m., several search and rescue teams waited to go up the mountain. Photo/Jo Star
Some search and rescue team members revealed that the three leopards who fled were all leopard cubs around the age of three. The third one is older than the two that have been found, "almost four years old", so it is more difficult to catch.
Another search and rescue team member said that he heard the zoo staff say that the reason why the leopard fled was that someone entered the leopard house to clean up and forgot to close the door when going out, and the security inspector did not notice that the leopard ran out like this and may have fled for more than ten days.
At present, the official has not disclosed the reason and specific date of the golden leopard's escape. Hangzhou Wildlife World mentioned in the "Apology Statement" on May 8 that in the early stage, due to the weak aggression of the fleeing juvenile golden leopard, it was worried that the announcement of the incident would cause panic and did not release the relevant information in time.
The people's government of Fuyang District of Hangzhou also reported on the same day that it ordered Hangzhou Wildlife World to immediately close the park, carry out business closure and rectification, quickly investigate the reasons for animal flight, comprehensively sort out potential safety hazards, and control the main responsible persons of Wildlife World.
At 10:00 a.m. on May 9, a reporter from the Wuhan Morning Post followed the Fuyang Wolf Rescue Team up the mountain to participate in the search.
The mountain road is steep and difficult to navigate
The Wolf Rescue Team is staffed similarly to other teams – in addition to the members of the search and rescue team, there is a guide at the front. There was also an anesthesiologist and two SWAT officers.
The team was heavily armed, wearing helmets, hiking boots and backpacks with flashlights and first-aid supplies. Some team members carried homemade knives and mountaineering bandages, and some team members carried medical kits with them, picked up wooden sticks from the ground as crutches, and traveled all the way.
Hound "Black Panther". Photo/Jo Star
Along the way, the mountain road changed from a cobblestone road to a stone road, and then to a dirt road covered with dead leaves, and the path gradually became difficult. From time to time, the guide took out the knife he was carrying on his back and cut down the branches and leaves to open the way.
The steep mountain road is a great challenge to the physical fitness of the team members. The dense forest is full of dead branches, turquoise, and the stones in the shade are covered with damp moss, and the feet feel wet and slippery, and if you are not careful, you may slide down the slope. The team members often need to climb with both hands and feet, or borrow each other's strength with crutches one by one to climb the slope smoothly.
The team members borrowed from each other to climb the slope, and this kind of road condition is the norm in the mountains. Photo/Jo Star
Team member Fang Zhen is a retired female worker, 55 years old this year. She said that although she was often on duty and had hunted down murderers in the mountains of Fuyang, the leopard-infested mountain road was still the most difficult road she had ever experienced. During the climb, she felt a caterpillar fall into her clothes and crawl along her shoulders. Unable to use her hands and feet, and with mud all over her hands, she had to press the caterpillar to her shoulder through her clothes. "Just go back and rub some medicine."
Sometimes, the bamboo in the mountains suddenly fell in its entirety; sometimes, a sound came from the walkie-talkie, and the nearby team suspected of finding a leopard, and the team members had to slow down and move forward cautiously.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the male wolf rescue team reached the top of the mountain at an altitude of about 350 meters above sea level and met the team of the wild wolf rescue team. Search and rescue crews said that yesterday's second leopard was found on the slope opposite here. Some team members recalled that the leopard was first found by the hunting dogs.
According to the "Fuyang Release" report, after hearing the dog barking, the Red Cross wolf pack rescue team rushed to the scene and found that the golden leopard had been surrounded by search dogs, and the zoo personnel anesthetized the golden leopard.
On May 9, the previous day, a second leopard was spotted on the hillside. Photo/Jo Star
The third leopard
After descending the mountain at 2 p.m., the public security officers brought a box lunch and milk, and after a short rest, the team marched to Dongwu Mountain to continue the search for the whereabouts of the leopard.
On the mountain road, the reporter saw most of the living creatures were mosquitoes, caterpillars, meat worms, and small snakes. A local guide who often went up the mountain to pick herbs when he was young told reporters that there were not many large animals on the mountain.
Lu Tong, captain of the Fuyang Gongwolf Rescue Team, told reporters that some villagers reported that from May 5 to 6, someone had heard the sound of leopards in the east of Dongwu Mountain, near the West Lake District.
Search and rescue team members have lunch lunch at noon. Photo/Jo Star
Luton said that although the third leopard is older than the two leopards that have been caught, it does not have a hunting function and has poor wild survival skills. Lu Tong speculated that there are captive chickens and ducks and other poultry in the village below the mountain, "it stays in the mountain for a long time and is hungry, or it will want to come down to find something to eat." When you touch a human, you may pounce on it."
The local government said that it organized nearly a thousand people, including police, community (village) cadres, militia, masses, and volunteers, to patrol and persuade 12 village communities, 66 grids, and key blocks along the mountain checkpoint to patrol and persuade 12 village communities, 66 grids, and key blocks to pay attention to their own safety precautions, and to increase the publicity and notification of the living habits of the golden leopard.
At the foot of the mountain, a junior high school boy from downtown Hangzhou and his father had been waiting for the search team for a long time, and they asked the team members to go up the mountain together. The boy wears a cap and holds a telescope. He said his backpack was also equipped with protective equipment such as snake hooks.
The second-year boys who are interested in the outdoors come from downtown Hangzhou early in the morning. Photo/Jo Star
According to his father, the child was interested in the outdoors and wildlife, which coincided with the school holiday on Sunday, so he took him to participate in the search today. The father and son took the subway for hours and arrived at the safari park early in the morning. Considering the danger of the mountain road, the SWAT officers did not allow the boys to go up the mountain to participate in the search.
The boy provided information to the team, and on the north side of the reservoir, he heard the cries of apes, "usually frightened, it is possible to cry like that, leopards are likely to be there."
"Black Panther" catches the money leopard
"Black Panther" is a hunting dog domesticated by Lu Tong, the leader of the Fuyang Male Wolf Rescue Team, a female dog, 6 years old this year, and has been a hunting dog for one and a half years. Lu Tong kept it at home, usually ate the rice stir-fry eaten by people, and let it go up the mountain for training as soon as he had time. It has participated in the search and rescue of the Li Cement Flow and successfully rescued two survivors.
However, whether for the panther or the team, this search for the leopard is still their first search for non-human creatures.
Arranged by the command center, hounds and police dogs need to be pulled by a leash this time. The day before, there was a rumor that the second leopard found was bitten by a dog, and although it was later debunked, it still caused heated discussion.
During the search, "Black Panther" and Lu Tong pulled each other all the way.
The temperature in Hangzhou reached a maximum of 34 degrees Celsius on this day, and the panther climbed halfway up the hill, and it was so hot that it was hot enough to stick to its tongue, and a bottle of mineral water could be drunk at a time. Halfway through, it simply threw its entire body straight up on the bushes to cool itself down.
Halfway through the break, it lay on the ground and looked as tired as a human being. Lu Tong kept feeding the panther water, he fed him his cake to eat, and it chewed a bite and then ate it again. In the end, the panther was carried to the top of the mountain by Lu Tong.
Luton and Panther rest on the mountainside. Photo/Jo Star
After descending the mountain in the afternoon, Lu Tong was distressed by the panther and did not let it continue to participate in the search and rescue. At the entrance of the zoo, other rescue teams also have hounds who have not been able to continue to participate in the rescue due to physical discomfort and other reasons.
The black treasure of the vanguard rescue team, because he was too fat, could not continue to participate in the rescue. After descending the mountain, it took a bath and kept drinking water. Photo/Jo Star
Some search and rescue team members said, "The leopard that stays last must be the elite of the leopards, and we have to try our best to find it before it hurts anyone and let it return to the zoo." ”
At 7:30 p.m., the male wolf rescue team was once again tasked with searching up the mountain from the high dock. In addition, the Fuyang Red Cross Wolf Pack Rescue Team came in the afternoon to relay the work of wild wolves and pioneers. Ajay of the male wolf search and rescue team told reporters, "Leopards are animals that come out at night and are more likely to come out and move around at night." ”
Except for the leopard footprints found by the vanguard rescue team on the mountain in the morning, there is no new progress in the search. As of 10 p.m. on the 9th, the search for the third leopard continued.
Leopard footprints found by search and rescue crews on May 9. Photo/Jo Star
Wuhan Morning Post reporter Qiu Xing