Leopard Dies of Mental Shock After Getting Trapped in Chicken Coop in Kerala's Palakkad

Palakkad (Kerala): A leopard was killed in the Mekalapara area of Kerala's Palakkad on Friday night after it got trapped in the net of a chicken coop. Forest officials were informed about the incident and arrived at the spot and removed the leopard's body. Philip, the owner of the house where the incident occurred, said, "I heard sound from the chicken coop in the night. On coming out, I saw a leopard hanging in the chicken coop."

"There were nearly 100 hens in the coop and its hand was stuck," he added. Philip claimed that such incidents have recently become increasingly common in the area. "About 10 years ago my cow was killed and recently four goats of a man were killed," he claimed.

According to forest officials, the injuries on the leopard`s legs were not serious. However, the animal died due to mental shock after its leg got stuck in the coop. Nothing suspicious was reported, said the forest officials. The body of the leopard was sent for postmortem.

Dr Arun Zachariah who had conducted the postmortem of the leopard said that the death of the leopard happened due to capture myopathy.

"Death is due to capture myopathy. The Sample has been sent for a toxicology test and based on its result final report will be prepared. Preliminarily captured myopathy condition is the cause of death. The impact was on muscle organs due to hanging which resulted in heart failure and haemorrhage in internal organs and internal bleeding. There was a fracture on the right hand of the leopard. Our assumption is that it belonged to the 3 to 4 years of age group. A tooth was also missing."