Hangzhou Wildlife Park finally admitted that the leopard fled on April 19. The reason why they escaped was the negligence of the managers, who did not strictly abide by the rules when cleaning, which led to the escape of three leopards. These three leopards are two women and one man, about two and a half years old, underage, and they are artificially bred leopards.

We know that the hunting ability of leopards artificially bred in the wild is not strong, and it has been 2 1 day since they fled. In this 2 1 day, the third escaped leopard has still not been found, so the question is, what does the third escaped leopard eat in the wild, can it really survive in the wild?

What do escaped leopards eat?

According to Zou, a licensed veterinarian of Wildlife World, the main food of the escaped leopard in the zoo is thawed chicken pieces, which is about 2 kilograms per meal. Due to long-term growth in artificial breeding environment, leopard's wild survival ability is poor.

Wild leopards are timid and like to lie down during the day and go out at night. They mainly inhabit hidden tall trees and bushes. Wild leopards ambush when hunting. First, they will quietly shorten the distance from their prey. When they reach the hunting distance, they will suddenly rush out and get their prey by locking their throats. Or leopards hide in trees and wait until their prey passes before launching a surprise attack.

However, it should be noted that although the leopard has strong hunting ability, the leopard who has lived in the artificial environment for a long time has weak hunting ability in the wild. Veterinarian Zou said: The second leopard found should have been hungry for a long time, and its belly and body shape are obviously different from those when it was raised before.

In fact, there is no shortage of food in the area where the escaped leopard escapes. Nowadays, in order to search for the third escaped leopard, the search team has used various methods to search for its trace, including thermal imaging drones. According to Xu Lijun, a searcher, according to the detection of thermal imaging drones, there are many animals on the mountain, which will interfere with the search for the leopard. And this news also means that local food can support it to survive for a while.

However, it should be noted that in order to find the trace of the third leopard, Seeker will search for its trace in the places where it once existed and where it may have existed. For example, search for its footprints near the water source and find its leftover prey in its escape route. However, at present, there is no report about the remaining prey of the leopard. It just means that nearby residents should not go out alone and take good care of their pet dogs.

This is because leopards living in zoos have been in contact with people for a long time, which leads them to get close to people instead of avoiding them like wild leopards, which may lead to accidental injury to human beings. In addition, the fleeing leopard is not strong in hunting ability and young, so it is difficult to hunt wild animals. They may take the initiative to attack pet dogs, but they are less likely to attack pet cats, because they are all cats, and pet cats are sometimes wilder than leopards in zoos.

Although the escaped leopard may hunt the pet dog, there is no news that the leopard attacked the pet dog at present, which may mean that it has been hungry for many days. I hope Seeker can find it as soon as possible and provide it with a reasonable diet.

Why can't the escaped leopard be released?

Some netizens think that since the third escaped leopard can't be caught, why not just release the escaped leopard into the mountains?

In fact, the little leopard released to the family is irresponsible to both people and leopards.

The first is irresponsibility to people. Although a 2-and-a-half-year-old leopard is not as deadly as an adult leopard, its teeth and sharp claws are a certain threat to human beings. Moreover, at present, there are many old people and children living in the area where the little leopard escapes, which brings serious security risks to the local people.

Secondly, small leopards in artificial breeding environment will not avoid people, which brings certain threats to local people.

Moreover, the small leopard in the artificial breeding environment has poor hunting ability and it is difficult to hunt by itself. If they are not caught back to the zoo in time, they may die for lack of food.

More importantly, leopards are not suitable for being released at will. When some rescued leopards are released, experts will consider the local ecological environment and evaluate the number of local herbivores, the density of carnivores and the flow of people in the released area. Only by meeting their production conditions can they be released locally. Although there are many small animals in the area where escaped leopards haunt, the local wild environment is destroyed, which is difficult to support the long-term survival of leopards and will threaten the safety of local residents.

It is precisely because of this that it is necessary to "catch the escaped leopard back to the park", which is not only responsible for the local people, but also for the leopard.