A leopard that got trapped in a chicken coop at Manarakkad near Palakkad died on Sunday, January 29, after being stuck inside it for more than six hours, forest officials said. The leopard suffered minor injuries while it tried to free itself from the coop early Sunday morning. The injury led to a condition arising from stress and exertion, and the leopard died after hours of suffering,  chief veterinary surgeon of the forest department Dr Arun Zachariah told TNM.   

"The animal's leg was stuck on the coup [which contained goats and chickens] and it struggled a lot to get free. But the injury led to a fracture, and to a condition called capture myopathy [which arises from stress and exertion]. After hours of suffering, there was organ failure, resulting in the leopard's death," said Dr Arun. 

The forest department received information about the leopard around 2 am on Sunday. The forest officials, who found the animal too vicious, called Dr Arun only around 3 am. The doctor and his team left from Wayanad to Palakkad, but before they reached, the leopard had died. The animal, a four-year-old male leopard, is believed to have strayed in from a nearby forest.

"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. Some reports suggested that pellets were found inside the body of the leopard. However Dr Arun said that these reports were false. 

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.

With PTI inputs