Leopard spends 7 hours atop trees in MP’s reserve to escape tigress

Meddling in a territorial fight between two tigress did not end very well for a leopard as it had to spend seven hours on trees, officials at Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve said on Saturday.On Friday morning, forest officials learnt about a territorial fight between two tigresses in Pator range of Bageha beat. “It was a fierce fight, and resulted in one tigress being brutally attacked the other,” said BS Annegiri, field director of the tiger reserve.Noticing the fight, the leopard intervened and helped the weaker tigress flee. This angered the dominating tigress, who started chasing the leopard, Annegiri said.“The leopard first tried to run away, but realising the tigress was very close, it hurriedly climbed a tree at around 8 am. The tigress sat below watching the leopard and roaring in anger,” he added.An hour later, the leopard came down, thinking the tigress had probably dozed off. “As soon as the leopard came down, the tigress jumped on its feet and attacked the leopard again,” the field director said. Before the tigress could come closer, the leopard hurriedly climbed on another tree. This ordeal repeated thrice.When the escape seemed difficult, the leopard opted for an alternative. It started “jumping from one branch of the tree to another”, but tigress kept following, he said.At around 3 pm, the tigress finally left. “A few minutes later, a visibly exhausted leopard came down and left,” he said.Meanwhile, another forest team was deputed to search the injured tigress that had disappeared after the fight. After around two hours of search, the badly injured tigress was found. The forest field director said the tigress was provided the first aid.Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve is home to at least 124 tigers, the highest in the state. In 2021, 41 cubs were spotted in BTR.

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