Two leopards found dead in Andhra Pradesh

Amaravati: Two sub-adult leopards were found dead under suspicious circumstances within two days near Melavoi village in Sri Sathya Sai District, said an official on Thursday.

The first carcass, a female leopard, was found in an agricultural field outside the reserve forest area on Wednesday afternoon with froth oozing out from the mouth and bleeding through the nostrils.

“While searching the vicinity of the first carcass on Thursday around 9 AM, we found another dead leopard, male, on a hillock, including the carcass of a goat. We are suspecting if the leopards had died after eating that goat,” Sri Satya Sai district forest officer Ravindranath Reddy told PTI.

Suspecting poisoning, the forest officials have extracted samples from the felines and are in the process of sending them to the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals at Hebbal in Bengaluru to ascertain the cause of death.