Chickens have been released in a last - ditch endeavor to catch a leopard that has been skirt seizure by Chinese officials since escaping a safari park three weeks ago .
The Hangzhou Safari Park has amount under ardor for hold in the three leopards ’ relief valve on April 19 for fear of it affecting visitor numbers during a longsighted May Day vacation weekend .
However , the computed axial tomography was out of the bagful when house physician of Hangzhou commence spotting leopards roaming the mound and local afternoon tea plantation . Footageposted onlineshowed a leopard near Jinyuan hamlet , not far from the safari green .
Two of the leopards have been recaptured and returned . The first was recaptured on April 21 by the park , and the 2nd by a government - organize lookup on May 8 after occupier reported the sighting to official , according to astatementfrom the Fuyang District authorities . It is being treat for an injury to its right paw , the land - ownedGlobal Times reports .
The net Panthera pardus is still at large , with a hunt involve officials , locals , drones , tracker dogs , powered parachute , night - vision , and heat - detecting equipment , and now 100 chickens , AFP report . The hombre are captive - bred and so it ’s intend they have not evolve effective hunting skill and may be starving .
" Panthera pardus racetrack have been get wind near mountain villages . Police are searching . Everyone please securely close doors and windows and do not go out , ” say a aggregated text message sent to local residents .
The park ’s endeavour to hide the incident by not formally reporting it or alerting the public to the danger sparked a public outcry . According to the state - backedThe Paper , the common initially deny reputation of the escape . It has since released astatement(translated ) justify for not alarm people earlier , say that it was concern the announcement of the incident would have panic , that it at first thought as the three big cats were juveniles they were less aggressive , and that it accepted the criticism of the world .
The park is currently close for investigation and the parking lot ’s general director Zhang Dequan plus four others have beentaken into hold , harmonize to AFP . It is not bang on the nose how the animals escaped , though it ’s thought it was when keepers failed to follow refuge instructions after enter their enclosure to clean . The local police said Dequan had order the cover charge - up while the parking area scrambled to recover the cats .
This is not the first clock time parks and menagerie have come under fire for apparent loose security and endangering world in China . A visitor was mauled to end at Youngor Zoo in Ningbo , easterly Chinain 2017 in front of parking area visitors after he skip the fence and land in the tiger envelopment . More recently , a zoo worker was killed by a bear – again in full view of park visitors – last yearat Shanghai Wild Animal Park .
