Wildlife officers capture "violent" leopard in Panama

COLOMBO (News1st): Wildlife officers on Saturday captured a leopard believed to have killed one and injured another in Panama recently. The leopard aged 10 had shown a tendency of preying on easy targets in the village during the last few days, wildlife officers said. "We are requesting authorities to take steps to prevent these incidents from taking place in future," a farmer told News1st. The department of wildlife conservation said human activities could have adversely impacted the behaviour of the leopard. Carcasses of cattle and slices of meat had been dumped in a forest near the village, and watch huts at paddy fields were not built at elevated levels, officials observed. The leopard had attacked a farmer on January 1 who had visited the paddy field to inspect the condition of an electric fence. The injured victim is receiving treatment at the Ampara General Hospital. The remains of a person, believed to have been killed by a leopard, had been recovered in the Kudumbigala area in Ampara on December 30 last year. The incident prompted a mob to attack the wildlife office in Panama. Five suspects had been arrested over the incident.