Hyderabad: The Nehru Zoological Park on Monday lost a 15-day battle to save an injured young male leopard, rescued from Mahbubnagar district on June 10 and brought to the zoo for treatment, with the big cat breathing its last in the morning.
Zoo officials told Deccan Chronicle that the leopard, aged between three and four years, could not recover from the blows it received that nearly broke its back and made much of its body immobile.
The post-mortem examination, according to Dr M.A. Hakeem, zoo deputy director and head veterinarian, indicated that the leopard was beaten on its back. Though the spine itself was not broken, some of its vertebrae showed injury stresses and its spinal cord was damaged. “This resulted in the leopard unable to move its hind portion completely. It was not even able to raise its front legs fully,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
For the first few days, the leopard ate well, consuming up to 3 kgs of meat at one go. But, as the days went by, it…