Leopard Cubs Reunited with their Mother

Reuniting leopard cubs with their mother is no easy task, especially in areas where the mother lives near human habitations around tea gardens.

The call was from Upper Assam where most of the human-leopard conflict cases that IFAW-WTI has handled during the last 3 years have occured.  In this instance two leopard cubs, almost a month old, were found by workers while clearing bushes in the Dikom Tea Estate, in Dibrugarh district.

Dr. NVK Ashraf, head of the Wild Rescue Team, and Dr. Anjan Talukdar, a wildlife vet at IFAW-WTI's Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation in Kaziranga, were contacted by Dr. Boro for guidance.  Dr. Ashraf asked Dr. Boro to simply place the cubs in a thicket nearby and watch from a distance. He knew that the challenge would be convincing the tea garden managers to allow the cubs to be reunited with their mother because they usually prevail upon the forest department to trap leopards and release them elsewhere.

It was a tough job for Dr. Boro to deal with the tea garden management and convince them to allow the cubs to be reunited with their mother as the workers did not want a leopard around.  After much discussion it was agreed that they would allow the mother to come and pick up the cubs from a nearby thicket.

Both cubs were placed in a trap cage with the trigger locked into position.

There was no one except three laborers and a forest staff to help Dr. Boro as no one wanted to take any chances with an angry mother leopard!

A Reunion in the Garden
The team waited the entire night with the mother growling from the bushes.

"We had no guns. Just five of us sitting about 20 meters away from the cage."

The mother finally came out in the early hours of the morning, picked up the male cub and disappeared.

Hoping that the mother would return for the female cub, Dr. Boro decided to keep her in a clear tea garden trench with closed ends so that she could not escape and the mother could come and pick her up.  However, there was no sign of the mother the next day.

The villagers, meanwhile, were quite aghast by this "soft" attitude.  According to them, leopards are meant to be trapped and sent elsewhere!  Unknown to Dr Boro and the team, they had hatched a different plan.

With a duck as bait, they had placed a trap cage about half a kilometre away and trapped the mother inside.  Dr. Boro ran with the remaining cub to the cage as soon as he heard.

"I was angry and disappointed that after all the hard work and initial success, things were getting out of control," Boro said.

The mother greeted his approach with angry growls and dashed her body against the bars.  Placing the cub a few inches away from the cage he waited with bated breath.  The cub, sensing its mother, moved towards the bars and the mother tried to pull the little one in, but the bars were in her way.

The doctor had no alternative.  With shaking hands he picked up the cub, opened the trap door ever so slightly and slipped her into the cage while the mother glowered at him from a corner.

The team then left immediately and came back that night to check on the situation.  The cub was happily suckling and the mother had completely calmed down.

The team had a mother leopard with her cub inside the cage which was about four feet in height.  If they opened the cage and let her go she might take the cub or might not.  She might even attack the team. There was no place to hide, but they decided to take the risk anyhow.  They climbed up on the top of the cage and opened the door.

The mother jumped out and disappeared for a few seconds and then came back and sat in the clearing about 15 meters away.  The message was clear.

Dr. Boro and the team climbed down and walked away from the cage to the village.

Later in the morning they went back to the cage and the cub had gone.  They searched the area to make sure that the cub had not been left behind and and then went home to sleep.

"I was afraid," Dr. Boro said, "but I felt that she understood my intentions once I went to her with the cub."