MANSEHRA: A common leopard, which had received injuries on its head after falling from a mountain in Kaghan valley, died in the early hours on Monday.

“The wildcat, which was shifted to the Dhodial pheasant centre, succumbed to injuries on Monday morning,” Dr Mohammad Ayaz, a wildlife department official, told reporters.

The four-year-old male common leopard, which had fallen on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road from the nearby mountains while chasing a grey goral, died in the intensive care unit of the centre, he added.

Dr Ayaz said the wildcat had received head injuries, which proved to be fatal.

“We had kept the animal under intensive care since it was brought to the centre, but couldn’t survive,” he said.

Divisional wildlife officer Taimur Shah had on Sunday stated that the department had started an investigation under the Wildlife Biodiversity Act, 2015, to ascertain whether hunters or anybody else was involved in the incident.

He had said that there was also possibility that two wildcats might have fought as one who proved to be the strongest never allowed the other to stay or even enter its territory.

“We have dispatched the dead animal to the division’s main veterinary health facility in Abbottabad for autopsy, which would determine the exact cause of its death,” Mr Shah said.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022