Kerala: Leopard dies of shock after getting trapped in chicken coop

The big cat was trapped inside the coop of a house near Kerala's Mekkalapara after which the owner of the house locked it from outside

A leopard that got trapped in a chicken coop at Manarakkad near here died on Sunday after being stuck inside it for more than six hours, forest officials said. The animal was in the cage for a long time and died out of shock, the officials added.

The leopard suffered minor injuries while it tried to free itself from the coop early Sunday morning. "However, as per the post-mortem report, the animal died due to shock. The injuries are not that serious or anything suspicious," a senior forest official of the district told PTI.

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The big cat was trapped inside the coop of a house near Mekkalapara after which the owner of the house locked it from outside. The forest officials reached in the morning to capture the animal and were ready to tranquilise it but around 7 am, they found it motionless.

"We found it dead and after the post-mortem conducted as per the guidelines issued under the National Tiger Conservation Authority, it was cremated," the official said.