one of the two persian leopards of the Cabárceno Nature Park located in Cantabria was dejected this tuesday after escaping from the premises where it was located.
Both animals were in adaptation period after arriving at the Cantabrian facility this summer from the Zoo Aquarium of Madrid. The coordinator of the park’s veterinary services, Santiago Borragán, has confirmed that the event took place around 8:15 a.m. – practically an hour before the opening of the facility – when the workers realized the animal was missing.
“It was an enormously complicated situation because it was “a very dangerous animal”Borragán stated in response to the feline’s escape. From there, he justified, they had to make the decision to shoot him down. “Shooting him with an anesthetic dart could not be done because he takes more than seven minutes to sleep and, in that time, he can hide or run towards us and cause misfortune,” he explained.
This decision, the veterinarian has assured, was made in application of the leak prevention plan that the park itself has established, which states that in a situation of these characteristics, “the first thing to think about is the workers and the visitors.” “We don’t like it, but first things first“, he pointed out.
According to Borragán, the two Persian leopards had fought the day before and one of them had not entered the stable to sleep. The next morning, at first light, the workers verified that the animal was not in its enclosure and that “had jumped the fence“. Thanks to the necklace GPS After tracking the two animals, they were able to find it hidden under a fig tree near the enclosure.
In adaptation period
The two specimens were in adaptation period. According to Borragán, like felines, they are “complicated” animals and their process is “slower”, although one of them, the one that entered the stable and continues to lead a “normal life”, is “totally adapted”, while that the dejected man was not “that much”.
These are two six-year-old males, brothers, from the Madrid Zoo Aquarium, the facility where they were born, an exceptional fact since it was the first time that this species reproduced in Spain. The enclosure in which they were located was dedicated to jaguars and, since the specimen of this species died, the space was renewed and reinforced at a security level to accommodate this felid with complex behavior given its aggressiveness.
This space has a total area of almost 4,000 meters squares and includes indoor accommodation, swimming pool, wooded, rocky and meadow areas. The outdoor enclosure is divided into two areas to facilitate the handling of the animals. With them, Cabárceno incorporated a new protected species. They were transferred following the recommendations of the coordinator of the European Exsitu Species Conservation Program (EEP) specific for the Persian leopard, dependent on the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA).
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