Likan, a 15-year-old male leopard, died inside the Deer Park mini zoo in Sambalpur in Odisha on Saturday morning.
The lone big cat of the zoo had been rescued from the Redhakhol forest on February 4, 1999, when it was only two-month old.
Since then, it was a captive animal inside the zoo.
According to RCCF Sarat Chandra Acharya and DFO S Nayak, Likan had fallen ill two days ago and gave up food on Friday.
“The leopard was administered saline and kept under observation by the forest staff. However, it died in the early morning the next day. The death was due to old age”, they informed.
The leopard was later cremated inside the zoo premises after the post mortem.
