Newborn cub gets back mother’s warmth

Surat: Amid the constant tapping of rain, the squeaks of a cub were music to the ears of labourers working on a sugarcane farm in Tajpor village near Bardoli. No strangers to leopards giving birth to cubs in the fields, the farmhands stopped their work, suspecting that the feline was in the vicinity and fiercely protecting her little one.In the end, it was the happy reunion between the cub and mother leopard which left the villagers with some emotional memories. On Saturday, the labourers informed the farm owner Nilesh Patel who spoke with the village elders and alerted the forest department. The forest team reached the spot and saw that the cub, which was barely one or two days old, had not even opened its eyes and the umbilical cord was intact. It was immediately taken for medical examination where the veterinary doctors found it to be healthy. The doctors even preferred not to give it some feed as it was healthy and the chances of immediate reunion were strong. The forest team then took the cub to the same spot, placed it on a soft cloth, and put a partially open crate over it so that the mother could hear its squeaks. The cub was placed around 6pm and the leopardess picked it up by 8pm.“It is clearly visible in the cameras how carefully the mother took the cub in her mouth and swiftly left,” said Sachin Gupta, deputy conservator of forest, Surat.This is not the first such reunion of cubs with their mother, but this little munchkin was probably the youngest to get back motherly warmth in quick time.Two trap cameras were placed at the location and one of them captured the entire movement of the reunion. Forest officials believe that the leopard shifted the cub to a nearby farm before moving to a permanent location.