News reports say a couple found a leopard in on their property in Indiana Thursday, according to The Christian Science Monitor. The couple, fearing for the lives of their pets, shot and killed the animal.
Indiana is not a hotbed for the big cats. The nine leopard species are usually found in Asia and Africa.
A Charlestown, Indiana woman and her boyfriend saw the cat and believed it to be a bobcat. They were mistaken.
There had been recent pet attacks within the woman’s neighborhood.
"The cat in these photographs has been identified tentatively as a leopard" an official from Indiana’s department of natural resources said to a local news station.
"Perhaps an immature cat about 9 months old. DNR is attempting to determine who it belonged to, or where it came from. In any case, it would be someone's pet, since leopards are not native to Indiana, or for that matter, to North America," the official went on to say.
The big question now is—how did an animal usually found on the other side of the world end up in Charlestown, Indiana? DNR officials are currently looking into the situation.
A man who owns a wildlife refuge center not far from the site said he has accounted for all his animals.
Owning a leopard is legal in the state but requires a permit.
Leopards eat everything from insects to primates so it is a possibility the leopard might have tried to eat the woman’s pets.
This is the second story in Indiana involving a huge cat within the past few days. On Friday a woman was cleaning out the cage of a tiger at a wildlife refuge in Center Point, Indiana. She did not remember to close the gate and was attacked by the tiger. Other workers were able to free her and she is currently recovering.
