by Louise Searl
bread wine
Shanna, the Amur leopard, paced up and
down obsessively. It was nearly feeding time and she knew the keeper would soon
appear. It was getting dark, the visitors had all left hours ago. There had been
some tasty looking children in the crowd today, but try as she might she could
never reach them through the thick plate glass of the prison which was
home.
She had been born in captivity, but
her mother had told her stories about the lives of their forebears who had lived
in the wild. She knew that there are few Amur leopards left in the forests and
mountains of China and Russia, and her dearest wish was to be there herself. She
wanted to run in the huge open spaces, to hunt for her own food and never, ever
again see the faces of human visitors, desperate for a glimpse of her agility
and the sound of her distinctive rasping bark.
Shanna was sick of her enclosure. She
was sick of the sight of the three trees. She was sick of
the sight and sound of the visitors. She was sick of the routine. She longed for
release from captivity. She longed for excitement and danger. She longed to be
free as the wind, for her life to be her own.
One day she was woken and found
herself being herded into a box on wheels. Before she knew what was happening
she was travelling along a bumpy road. The zoo had been left behind. Through the
bars of the wagon she could see fields, trees, hills and sometimes people and
their houses. Eventually into view came huge machines with wings like birds,
nestling on the ground. The wagon slowed down, she was let into a small
enclosure and sedated. She slept all through the flight, and the next thing she
was aware of was being released into a large patch of ground, enclosed in wire.
It was a bit like the zoo she had left, but there were no gaping crowds. Then
she realised that there was no keeper coming in every night with food. Instead,
every evening she was let out into a wild area where there were other animals
she could eat if she could catch them. She was happy in that half-way house
between captivity and freedom. She soon became a good hunter and caught enough
prey to assuage her hunger. She found the water holes, where she could both
drink and stalk unwary deer. She adapted quickly to her new
surroundings.
The keepers had been watching her.
They noticed how quickly she learned to hunt. She was part of a programme
whereby animals raised in captivity are gradually returned to their natural
habitats to breed. They saw that she was ready to survive in the wild. They were
about to grant her dearest wish.
Once more she was sedated and put
aboard an aircraft which would take her far far away to Russia. She wondered
what was happening now. Was she on her way back to the zoo? She hardly dared to
believe she might be on her way to her homeland. But when she awoke after the
long flight, she knew she had reached home. She looked around her. She sniffed
the air, she knew this was where she belonged. At last she was free.
She set off to explore this wonderful
paradise. She found a group of deer grazing and soon singled one out, a little
apart from the rest. Later, she settled in a leafy hollow, aware that her coat,
thickening up now for the winter, would act as camouflage. She knew that she
must rely on her own wits and survival instinct. She was in her own country, she
was home at last.
Leopard skin coats fetch a good price
overseas. The skin of the Amur leopard is particularly prized. Shanna was being
watched. Every day she slept in sheltered spots. Every night she set out to
catch her food. She delighted in the space around her and in the many smells and
sounds of the bush. Sometimes she picked up the scent of humans, still familiar
to her from her years in the zoo. Sometimes she noticed trails in the grass
which had been made by man. Her instinct was to avoid such areas.
The season changed. It became colder
and food was harder to find. Sometimes when she was very hungry and had no
success in hunting she remembered how her keeper used to bring her daily ration
of fresh meat every evening. But then she'd also remember how she was confined
in a small space, and how she was gaped at by human beings every day. Here she
was free.
Spring was on the way. Shanna met a
male leopard and they mated. She bore four beautiful cubs. She was a good
mother, spending hours feeding her babies and later hunting tirelessly for fresh
meat to take back to where they awaited her return. One particular day she
followed a track in the undergrowth which smelt of humans. Suddenly a set of
metal teeth closed round her legs. Searing pain swept through her body. She was
trapped. The more she struggled the tighter became the grip on her legs. As she
lay there for hours, bleeding, panting and twitching with pain, she thought of
her hungry and vulnerable cubs awaiting her return, and she realised that she
although she would never have turned down the chance of freedom, there was a
price to pay. And then she died.
About the author
Louise Searl lives in
Essex
No comments:
Post a Comment