WIDE SEARCH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 2

WIDE SEARCH

LEOPARD ESCAPES FROM ZOO AUCKLAND PUBLIC WARNED (l'.A.) AUCKLAND; March 14. A half-grown leopard has escaped from the Auckland Zoo, and although an intensive search was made this afternoon, he was still at large to-night. The leopard, one of a pair which arrived at the zoo from Singapore early this month, is dangerous if he is cornered or frightened, and members of the public have been warned about it. Policemen, soldiers and members of the zoo staff began the search when it was found that the leopard was missing from its pit. They combed the zoo grounds and the area along the Western Springs ci’eek to New North Road, but had found no signs of the leopard when they had to cease operations at nightfall. The search will be continued in the morning. The leopard has not been seen since Sunday, and it is thought that he miglit already have travelled some distance from the grounds before his loss was discovered. Members of the public who see him have been asked to advise the police or the zoo. The discovery that the leopard was missing was made during the afternoon, when efforts were made to bring him out from rocks in which he was thought to be hiding in the pit. He had not been seen since Sunday evening, and as he and his mate had been very shy of the public gaze since their arrival in the Wairimu from Singapore it was thought on Monday and this morning that he was concealing himself as much as possible. Kept in Deep Pit Both young leopards were in a pit near the zoo kiosk. It is deep and is completely covered by bars and close heavy netting. Much of the floor of the pit consists of sloping. rock, in which there is a cave which comes to a dead end, and at the rear of the enclosure' is a vertical concrete wall into which the doors of the leopards’ den are set. As the young animal might have been ill, it was decided early this afternoon to bring him into the open. An inspection of the rocks failed to reveal him, and it was thought that he had crawded into the cave. A smoke bomb made of cotton waste soaked in kerosene was thrown into the cave to scare him out, but the final wisps of smoke died away without any sign of the leopard. Three members of the zoo staff, the foreman (Mr H. Roigard), a keeper (Mr B. Hunter) and a driver (Mr A. Matthews) 1 , then entered the pit to look for the animal.

With the remaining leopard locked securely in its den, the three men opened the gate in the pit, and, holding a large cargo net in front of them,' advanced into,the pit. They moved toward the cave with no sign of the leopard, and then threw the net over the cave entrance. When it became definite that the leopard had escaped, plans were made for an immediate search. The police were notified and a party of 16 constables was assembled and armed with rifles and pistols. Army assistance was also sought, and 10 armed men from Area 1, under the command of Captain H. B. Conway, area officer, joined the search party. In addition, the curator of the zoo (Mr R. W. Roach) had eight members of his staff armed and on the hunt for the missing animal. Grounds Cleared As soon as the alarm was sounded steps were taken to clear the zoo grounds. The public was immediately asked to leave, and the gates were locked. At that stage it was feared that the leopard might have been lurking among the trees. The zoo will be closed to-morrow. Only genuine reports about the leopard are sought from the public. Before the young leopards arrived at the zoo, the cage in which they were to be placed was thoroughly inspected and repairs were made to ensure that it would be absolutely safe, said the curator to-night. “At first it was intended to place them in a vacant tiger pit, but after the Oklahoma escape, when a leopard was said to have jumped about 40 feet to gain its liberty, it was decided to use a completely covered den I felt confident that the pit was absolutely safe,” he said. “There is only one place from which it could conceivably have escaped, and it is almost incredible that it could have squeezed itself through such a narrow opening.”

TENSION IN AUCKLAND ENDS

ARMY OFFICER SHOOTS LEOPARD (P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A burst of Sten-gun fire at 7.15 this morning ended the tension in „ Auckland over the escape of the half-grown female leopard from its cage at the Auckland Zoo some time since Sunday. A growl in the undergrowth, the mauled body of an opossum and the strange behaviour of birds led searchers to a closely-covered area in the zoo grounds at the rear of the associ-ate-curator’s house. Flushed by a cordon of armed searchers, the beast burst cover not six feet from Captain H. B. Conway, No. 1 Army Area officer. He emptied the magazine into the swiftly moving leopard, which died instantly. The growl in the undergrowth was heard by the wife of the associate-cura-tor, Lieutenant-Colonel E. R. Sanera, and the antics of birds caged nearby hinted that the leopard was not far away. While soldiers patrolled the routes to the Pasadena School, police beat through the suspected area —about an acre of bamboo and blackberry scrub at the rear of the Sarera house. The half-eaten body of the opossum gave other confirmation, and the cordon started to close in. The undergrowth moved and, with a low snarl, the leopard flashed into the open. A policeman whirled and fired a hurried shot but missed, and the beast swept back into the bushes. Thirty soldiers, under Captain Conway, were hurriedly recalled from the Pasadena area. Bren-guns were mount*

ed to cover Motions road which bounds the copse. The rest of the soldiers reinforced the police party. Thunderflash practice grenades were hurled into the undergrowth, but the leopard did not move. The police and soldiers moved in carefully but steadily, and zoo attendants brought a heavy nebting cage on the chance of capturing the beast alive, but it broke cover again from the bushes near a sheet iron fence. Captain Conway fired and the danger was over.