A rare specimen of a snow leopard captured by the Taliban

Afghan authorities have captured a rare specimen of a snow leopard that killed around 30 livestock in a mountainous region in the country’s northeast and are preparing to release it into the wild, a wildlife conservation group said Sunday. The cat was captured on Thursday evening after becoming trapped in a livestock enclosure in rural Zibak district of Badakhshan province and killing around thirty animals, the district’s deputy governor told AFP on Saturday. Abdul Rahman Kasra.

The young leopard was taken to the governor’s compound in the provincial capital Faizabad, he added. Khorosh Sahel, head of the Badakhshan Wildlife Conservation Society, told AFP that a veterinarian had treated a minor injury to one of the animal’s legs and that it would be released into the wild. “The authorities promised us that they will release him soon in Zibak district”he said.

Also readA wink with The Snow Panther

A breeder whose animals were killed on Thursday said he sought government help after losing his only source of income. “Animals were the only wealth I had to support my family”Gangi Beg said. Other residents of Zibak told AFP they hoped the authorities would carry out a plan to release the cat.

“I hope that the Islamic Emirate will do everything in its power to save the wildlife in Badakhshan so that its natural heritage can be protected and the snow leopard will not disappear from the province”, one of them, Mir Saeed, told AFP. The mountainous northeast of Afghanistan is one of the rare natural habitats of the elusive cat, nicknamed “Ghost of the Mountains”. Snow leopards are classified as a species “sensitive” According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), their numbers are declining due to the effects of climate change, loss of natural habitat and poaching.