Afghan authorities captured a rare snow leopard in the country’s mountainous northeast and were preparing to release it back into the wild after it reportedly killed dozens of livestock animals, a conservation group said Sunday.
The leopard was captured on Thursday night after becoming trapped in a livestock enclosure in the rural Zibak district of Badakhshan province, savaging some 30 animals, the district’s deputy governor Abdulrahman Kasra told AFP on Saturday.
The juvenile leopard was transported to provincial capital Faizabad and was being held at the governor’s compound, he added.
A snow leopard is seen in a cage at the governor’s house in Fayzabad on February 4, 2024. OMER ABRAR/AFP via Getty Images
The head of the Wildlife Conservation Society office in Badakhshan said a veterinarian had treated a minor injury to the big cat’s leg and that it would be released back into the wild.
