These images show an endangered snow leopard that took up residence in a sheep pen before the authorities eventually ‘evicted’ it.
They handed it over to an animal wildlife organisation after spotting that it had a possible fracture on one of its legs.
The incident took place in Yingawati Township, Wushi County, which is in Aksu Prefecture, in north-western China, bordering Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, at around 12pm on Wednesday, 19th January.
Police officers at the Yingart Border Police Station were alerted to the fact that a farmer had a snow leopard that had run into the farmer’s sheep pen.
The police went to the scene and saw that a snow leopard with black spots had indeed apparently taken up residence in the sheep pen.
The police evacuated the area to avoid the animal hurting anyone, should it have suddenly decided to leave the sheep pen.
Eventually, they managed to apprehend the wild animal and they gave it a medical checkup, where they found a suspected fracture of its right hind leg.
(Ping An Tianshan/AsiaWire)
The local Wildlife Conservation Association took in the wild animal and is currently treating it at the Kuqa City Wildlife Rescue Station in Xinjiang.
Snow leopards are listed as ‘vulnerable’, in the ‘threatened’ category, on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species.
It is believed that the snow leopard will be released back into the wild once it has been successfully treated by the wildlife conservation organisation.
It is currently unclear if the animal ate any of the farmer’s sheep.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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