Video shows youngsters narrowly miss encounter with leopard at Margalla Hills

ISLAMABAD: Two youngsters on Saturday narrowly missed an encounter with a leopard at the Margalla Hills National Park in Islamabad as the entire episode was captured on camera, ARY NEWS reported.

According to the footage, the leopard was spotted at a hiking trail on the Margalla Hills and two youngsters missed an encounter with the big cat by a minute.

The CCTV footage spotted a leopard at the Margalla Hills at 6:19 pm while two youngsters could be seen passing through the same track after a minute.

Wildlife Management Board said that the youngsters forgot their path during hiking and later apologized for roaming at the track after Maghrib prayer.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Wildlife Department on February 01 confirmed the presence of five leopards at Margalla Hills National Park of Islamabad.

Rina Saeed Khan, a chairperson wildlife management board, confirmed that the five leopards were spotted on January 31 on camera traps set up by IWMB.

“A female common leopard named “Shezadi has been found to be a permanent resident of territory between Trails 4 and 6 inside the Margallah Hills National Park. Shehzadi has been caught on camera traps set up by the IWMB staff for several evenings in a row in late January,” said a wildlife official.

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“From the areas that we have sampled using camera traps since 2019, we have identified at least 5 individual common leopards living within the boundaries of the Margallah Hills National Park,” says IWMB Chair, Rina Saeed Khan.

“Shezadi is now familiar with the trails that humans take and avoids them during the day. Most attacks by leopards on humans are in self-defense – intentional attacks are rare.”

The chairperson cautioned visitors to observe the warning signs of leopard territories and to stay on the marked trails and not to enter the park when it gets dark.