Abstract
Twelve adult female leopards trapped in snare traps were rescued from Shivalik Hills areas of Himachal Pradesh. Of the 12 female leopards, 33.33% (4) leopards were found pregnant while others 66.67% (8) female leopards were non pregnant. Of the eight dead female leopards, 62.5% of trapped female leopards died because of body gripper trap injuries while in 37.5% of female leopards the cause of mortality was feet trap injuries. The maximum of the trapping that is 50% (6) were in the winter season followed by rainy (33.33%) (4) and summer (25%) (3) Seasons. Out of 12 female adult rescued leopards, four female leopards could survived and others eight succumbed to trapping injuries. There was 100% mortality of all the fetuses in rescued free range female leopards. The fetuses were 1-3 in numbers in their uterus. Three leopards were in mid stage of the gestation while one leopard was in its early stage gestation. Key words: Trapping, fetal deaths, Leopards (Panthera pardus), Shivalik Hills.
Highlights
The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a large carnivore species and listed as near threatened species by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (2002)due to its declining population (Henschel et al, 2008).The population of the common leopards In India, based on pugmark censuses has been reported to be 9,844 leopards in 2001 (Singh et al 2008)
The common leopard density reported to be 1.0–25.5 per 100 km in the Indian subcontinent (Ramesh, 2010)
Twelve female adult leopards were rescued from various locations of the Shivalik Hills of Himachal Pradesh during the rescue operations of the trapped leopards
Summary
The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a large carnivore species and listed as near threatened species by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (2002)due to its declining population (Henschel et al, 2008).The population of the common leopards In India, based on pugmark censuses has been reported to be 9,844 leopards in 2001 (Singh et al 2008). The direct conflict of leopards to human population is considered as major case of the declining in the population of the leopards in India (Mishra, 2001; Mishra et al, 2002). Population of the various species of the free range wild animals decreases day by day.
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