Rescuing a Fierce Leopard: See What It Takes | Expedition Raw

Right 80 mg of ketamine and 4A 8 Mig of made tomine; that should do the job. Translocating an animal doesn't happen very often; it's a last resort for us. Me and Rudy walk up to the cage, and I'm the bait. I call his attention, so he turns his butt and gives Rudy a good aim.

This is the collar that we're going to put on, and it's got a VHF and a satellite GPS satellite unit. It is equipped with a drop-off mechanism, so this collar will drop off in June 2018. By that time, we would have established where this animal has settled into a home range and what has happened to the animal.

If he's half awake and you start stimulating him, then it's not good. We wait till he sleeps deep enough, and then we go closer. We are just going to do all the measurements and get his body temperature and weight.

Yeah, he has an injury here; just let's document that. If we look back at 10 years ago when we started, 80% of animals would be shot in the capture cage. In the last year, only 0.3% got killed. So, I think we've come a long way in terms of changing perceptions and working with landowners and farmers in looking at alternatives.

We reached our release site, the protected area. We are looking for a tree that we can throw the rope over to open the capture cage gate. Tie a rope to the gate and throw that rope over a tree. Then, from the inside of the car, pull it open.

But everybody should be in the cars now when we pull this open; please, windows rolled up. Leopards are not like cheetahs or lions. When you release them, they just run off. Leopards tend to come back and attack you.

Sometimes they take the down. We are going to reverse him a little bit more. If you release an animal into a release site, they must be fully awake, because there are other predators in the area.

That's it, very good. Really okay, there the leopard is getting out. Yeah, there it goes. Close those windows; close those.

All in the day's work. I mean, that's what it's all about: hope and pray it doesn't cause any trouble. Still, we've saved his life, and still, one leopard more on the planet.