On July 3, The Forestry Bureau of Changyang Tujia Autonomous County confirmed that they have discovered a suspected trace of leopard in the county.

　　The chief of the County Forestry Wildlife Conservation Section said that on June 28, the villagers of the Caijiaping Village in Dayan Township reported the information to them. Xiong Fulin, a villager who lives in the Pingdingguan in the Team 1 of the village, discovered the suspected footprint of a "Tiger".

　　Following an on-site inspection, they found that with a diameter of about 5-7 cm and a depth of approximately 2-3 cm, these footprints have five toes and look like the plum petal. Along the footpaths, more footprints and nail scratches were discovered and their outlines also became clearer. This trace of "tiger" footprint disappeared before a dense forest, the southwest and northwest of which are all uninhabited virgin forest and are adjoined with the Changyang Bengjianzi Provincial Nature Reserve.

　　After survey, investigation and comparison of footprints on site, the forestry specialist initially inferred that these footprints belong to a big cat. It is highly suspected that this animal is the national first-grade attentive protected animal- leopard.

　　With the extremely excellent eco-environment, Changyang is identified as a leopard type locality in Fauna Sinica which is compiled by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is learned that the leopard trails have been found many times in Changyang Territory. In 1996, in the Hejiaping Township of the county, there was once a villager who had illegally killed a 2.15 m-long adult male wild leopard, whose specimen has been still well preserved.

　　Since then, more leopards are reported continuously to have attacked the farmers\' poultry in Hejiaping, Langping and other towns in Changyang County. On January 24 this year, four scattered sheep of Hu Kunlin, a villager of Zhonglin Town, Hejiaping Township  were suspiciously attacked by the leopard on the hillside and all mortal wounds were at the throat with 8-9 cm of footprints in diameter left.

　　Currently, the local forestry department has further strengthened the ecological protection and dynamic monitoring of the leopard territory. (Reporter: Wang Chenglong, Correspondent: Du Qiang and Liu Zongzhao)