A Leopard secretly visited a Cow daily for motherly love

Usually, herbivores and carnivores do not have a friendly relationship. But, a Leopard visited a cow regularly to get motherly love and affection for more than a year.

A Leopard visits a cow to get love

Sometimes such a miracle happens that nobody can believe unless they see it from their own eyes or the pics. Such an incident happened in Antoli village of Vadodara district in Gujrat, India in 2002. The story was first published in a leading Indian newspaper Times of India.

A 1-year-old female leopard started visiting a 3-year-old cow in the village. At first, it scared the villagers, but soon they found something very strange. The truth was that the leopard comes to play & get motherly love and affection from the cow. When they found her sitting with the cow, hiding behind her and cuddling, then they stopped worrying and became curious about this wonder.

How the leopard cub connected with the cow?

Later, the cow owner told that in childhood this leopard cub was perhaps living as an orphan in the nearby jungle. The jungle is adjacent to their house, and their animals gaze at the jungle in routine. So, it’s possible that this cub met this cow in the jungle, and she gave her motherly love and affection.

Perhaps, the leopard cub’s mother had died or the cub somehow separated from the mother. Otherwise, cows are in the food chain of Leopards. The carnivores have a natural tendency to attack herbivores (animals that eat plants exclusively are herbivores, and animals that eat only meat are carnivores).

Further, in childhood, the carnivores do not come in direct contact with herbivores as they remain with their predator family. But, since at that age, the female leopard cub was very small and those tendencies develop with age, capacity, learning, and requirement. So, it was looking for milk, love, and affection and at that time and she came into connection with the cow. Thus this attachment might have developed.

Leopard visit cow every night

Then daily in the night at around 11 pm, this leopard started coming to the cow. However, other pet cows and goats were also tied nearby, but the leopard never disturbed or showed violent behavior with other animals.

It reached directly to the same cow and the cow even breastfeed her. The leopard rubbed her body against the cow’s body with loving gestures and the cow licked her like a baby.

Since, with time, the leopard grew up and developed into a nearly fully grown hunter, the villagers started worrying. They understood the attachment but remained cautious about the probable danger attached to the visit of a fully grown Leopard in the village. Someday tragedy could have occurred with their children, village dogs, or other animals.

So, they tried to distract the leopard by placing meat pieces nearby, but it never ate that meat. When this trend continued for a long time then the villagers put a cage, but the leopard’s intuition sensed it and it stopped coming to the village for some time. After a few months, it again visited the cow a few times, but after that, it stopped coming permanently.

Leopard cub needs motherly love till around 2 years

A leopard cub needs motherly love and protection till around 2 years of age. I assume that since this leopard had attained this age and grown up fully into a predator, so now it doesn’t require that motherly love anymore.

Further, in their natural habitat, after fully growing up they fight for their territory with almost everyone, even with their natural parents.

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So, her childhood requirement must have been over by that age and with circumstances, or it may have changed the area. They travel long distances of 20-30 km. overnight. However, quite possibly it may have sometime visited the cow, unnoticed by the villagers as the jungle was nearby.

But, anyhow this incident was unique and rare.

• Featured Image & other Image Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGgR17LYUc&t=175s