Four Arabian leopard cubs burned to death [Archives:2008/1126/Local News]

Hamed Thabet
DHAMAR, Feb 4 ) Four Arabian leopards in Otma'a Wildlife preservation were burned last December by an unknown hunter, said Abdulwahed Al-Bahri, the head of information committee in the Otma Wildlife Preservation.

Al-Bahri confirmed that the four cubs died after being burnt, but their mother survived.

According to Al-Bahri, the hunter, a local from the preservation, was planning to sell the leopards to Sana'a zoo. “It was an accident. According to the information I received from locals, this hunter caught five leopards, four cubs and their mother. In the process he started a fire in order to make them dizzy, but unfortunately some of the cubs were burned to death, while their mother escaped,” Al-Bahir told the Yemen Times, rejecting the Environmental Protection Authority statement which denies the incident, adding that the news excited wildlife NGOs, which demanded more details about the incident from the authority.

Badri Al-Samhi, sheikh of Al-Aras, an area close to the preservation, noted that Arabian leopards and hyenas are killed every day by locals in order to protect their livestock. “These Arabian leopards are not seen every day