Manas National Park, February 17, 2016: A juvenile male clouded leopard under care at IFAW-WTI’s Wildlife Transit Home in Charaikhola, Kokrajhar, was shifted to the acclimatisation site at Doimari in Manas National Park as part of the rehabilitation process.

At the time of admission, the animal was underweight, weak, anaemic and pot belied. Under care of the IFAW-WTI team at Manas, the animal rapidly regained weight and instincts characteristic to the species.

Bhaskar Choudhury, Head Veterinarian (NE), IFAW-WTI was happy that the animal has shown remarkable improvement after having undergone intensive nursing “He has gained 7.2 kgs since its admission in August 2015. His hunting skills have improved considerably and he has been killing the prey offered to him within 25-30 seconds in  characteristic clouded leopard behaviour. These are promising signs for rehabilitation success. The previous two batches of clouded leopards that were admitted to CWRC were brought in as cubs while this particular animal was admitted when he was six months of age. This required a few modifications in the existing protocol for in situ acclimatization and rehabilitation of clouded leopards,” he said.
Preprations being made for release at the site

Khampa Borgoyari, Deputy Chief of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), who was present on site, said, “This is the second occasion in Bodoland when IFAW-WTI has released clouded leopards in the wild. They are whole-heartedly supporting conservation initiatives in Bodoloand area. IFAW-WTI even started the elephant project in Manas National Park from Doimari. I believe the organisation will take all necessary steps to ensure that this beautiful animal is wild again.”

Thanking the BTC administration for their support to ‘Bring Back Manas’, Vivek Menon said, “We are happy to be here. It is an enigmatic mammal and we didn’t even know much about this species a few years back. However, in the last five years, we have handled five cases of clouded leopards and by rehabilitating them we would know more about the specie and bring back the glory of Manas National Park. And for this, IFAW-WTI is very happy to partner with BTC, people of Bodoland and Assam.”

IFAW- WTI has handled seven cases of clouded leopards in Assam since 2009, most of them originating from the Western Assam near Manas NP. Five cases involved rehabilitation, one was released after rescue and a recent case involved surgical intervention, recovery and release.

Click here,
http://wti.org.in/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=1502
to read more about clouded leopard rescue, rehabilitation and release.