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Leopards incredible journey to freedom
Topic Started: Jan 28 2008, 08:37 AM (46 Views)
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The actress and conservationist Virginia McKenna has just taken two leopards from Monaco Zoo to a new home in the African savannah. Roderick Gilchrist witnessed their incredible journey

It was just after dawn when the two leopards were taken to their new home on the African savannah. The tranquiliser fired into their front legs from a blowpipe had worn off. But after 48 hours they were still locked in their travelling crates.

Pitou and Sirius, both 16 and brother and sister, sniffed the red African earth. In the distance they could hear the growl of an old lion. A welcome or a warning?


Pitou before his release (top) and Virginia McKenna, John Knight and Prince Albert of Monaco with sedated Pitou
It was followed by the wild clucking of a yellow-billed kite shaking a bean tree. Africa was sounding its reveille.

Virginia McKenna cautiously pulled up the shutter on the cage holding Sirius. It was positioned to lead straight into a fenced-off three-acre sanctuary of acacia and thorn bushes. The plan was for Sirius to come out first and disappear into the cover of the undergrowth, followed by her big brother Pitou.

Almost on cue, her beautiful golden silk head emerged with its ink-black rosettes, followed by a tentative paw, but as soon as her wary eyes saw the game wardens watching from a viewing platform she let out a guttural roar and bolted back into the cage. Humans. Fifteen feet above her. Every instinct said danger.

Sirius hadn't eaten for two days. She had been drugged, secured in a cage in which she could only just turn around, flown 7,000 miles and then bumped around on dirt roads to get here, so you couldn't blame her for feeling angry.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtm...C-mostviewedbox
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