It was dawn
at Somatwadi
village, a few
kilometres from
Pune, and the
farmers were waking
up to another
long day of
harvesting their
sugarcane crops.
Text and photographs by
Wildlife SOS
Somewhere in the fields, a mother
leopard was just venturing out to hunt,
her tiny cubs still asleep. With very little
forest left in the area, mother leopards
find the dense sugarcane fields the only
available shelter for their cubs.
HOME ALONE
As soon as they were awake, the tiny
cubs began mewling for their mother.
The farmers in the field followed the
sad cries, and found two cubs huddled
together, barely able to open their eyes.
Leopard mothers are very protective
of their babies, and the farmers were
worried that the mother would be upset
if they moved her cubs out of the fields.
Still, they couldn’t leave the cubs there, as
it was February, the harvest season, and
farmers would be constantly in the field
for cutting sugarcane and could stumble
upon the mother leopard. Scared, the
villagers called the Forest Department and
the team at Wildlife SOS to help them.
WILDLIFE SOS
Wildlife SOS is an NGO that works in
Junnar, Maharashtra, among other places,
to help local villagers and farmers live safely
alongside the leopards that also call the
area home. The team is specially trained
and led by a veterinarian named Dr. Ajay
Deshmukh with many years of experience
in rescuing leopards from all sorts of
situations – when they get hurt, or fall into
wells, or when cubs get separated from
their mothers. Hearing about the cubs in
Somatwadi, the Wildlife SOS team jumped
swiftly into its vehicle, and was at the scene
in no time to meet the forest officers who
had also arrived.
SANCTUARY ASIA, 2018 MAY 21MISSING MUM
Dr. Ajay identified the cubs as a male and
a female, born just about 21 days ago!
Surrounded by curious people, the cubs
were scared, so Dr. Ajay comforted them
as he carefully checked them for any
problems or injuries. Luckily, the cubs
seemed to be healthy, and ready to go
back to their mother!
Some villagers informed Dr. Ajay that a
mother leopard was spotted nearby, and
she seemed worried – so the Wildlife SOS
team put the cubs in a safe box in the field
where the leopard was last seen. They
then fixed camera traps on a nearby tree to
keep an eye on the cubs from a distance,
without frightening the mother off.MOTHER & CUBS
Hours passed, as everyone stared at the
screens, holding their breath as theywaited to see if the mother would come
to take her mewling cubs. They heard her
calling from the nearby jungle, responding
to their soft cries. She walked up to the
box and knocked the cover off easily with
her nose and peered down at her babies,
who were absolutely delighted to see her!
She caressed each cub with her muzzle
and licked them till they quietened down.
Carefully carrying each one by the scruff
of the neck, she then vanished into the
forest, leaving the Wildlife SOS team
smiling from ear to ear!
Now their mother can teach the cubs all
the important things they need to know
to survive in the wild, like hunting, until
they’re about 18 months old. It always
makes us happy to see young ones of
animals return to the forest and grow up
with their mother in the wild, where
they belong.Wildlife
Rescue!