Goats subject to wildlife attack

This article is by guest contributor Michael Rank

There have been numerous tantalizing reports in recent years of leopards lurking in the mountains around Beijing, and now a farmer in a remote village has told how he believes his goats have been the victims of one of these mysterious marauders.

Xinhua reported how farmer Wang Jingqi woke up one morning on February 11 to find four of his goats with neck wounds and one of them dead. During a search of the surrounding area, eight more dead and three injured goats were found, all with tooth marks on the neck from a large predator. Wang and his neighbors also found indistinct pawprints apparently left by the attacker.

"Villagers suspect from the wounds on the necks [of the goats] that this is the act of a leopard which hasn't been seen [in the area] for 30 years," said Wang, aged 43.

The incident occurred in Beigou Village 北沟村, which has only four families left, the other inhabitants having presumably gone to work in Beijing or other cities. Apparently due to its remoteness it has been declared a "natural village" 自然村.

There have been other similar mysterious attacks on livestock, a villager says, but this was the most serious, and old people believe it could have been the work of a leopard, but the report is cautious in coming to any firm conclusion.

Beigou is situated in Huairou county in the north of Changshao Ying Manchu Prefecture 长哨营满族乡 on the border with Hebei province.