This is the touching moment orphaned leopard Pardus bounds towards her human companion, attempting to curl up on her lap and clamber all over her.
Despite her huge size, the black leopard can be seen enjoying a playful tumble with volunteer Juhi Agrawal, who has worked with the abandoned animal since she was a cub.
Completely unaware of her enormous frame, the leopard spots her friend and leaps up onto a platform, trying to sit on her lap and scrambling all over her, much as a kitten would. The big cat, whose coat appears to be solid black because her spots are hard to distinguish, was abandoned by her mother when it was just a few hours old.
She was taken to Cheetah Experience, a charity which carries out conservation work in South Africa, where she was raised by volunteer Juhi Agrawal who is pictured in the video. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen, founder of the charity, said: ‘She is just jumping and playing like they would in a tree.
‘The human interaction enriches their lives in captivity. We take them out on walks so they are not in the cages all the time. Pardus loves her walks on the plains.
‘When she is a bit older, we will introduce her to our breeding programme which is aimed at preventing the animals from becoming extinct.’
Ms Van Nieuwenhuizen said: ‘When we found her she weighed just 300g, which is quite light for a leopard cub. Normally they weigh 500g when they are born.
‘We suspect her mother abandoned her because she did not have enough milk for her.
‘She was completely helpless so we took her in. She would not have survived otherwise.’
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Despite her huge size, the black leopard can be seen enjoying a playful tumble with volunteer Juhi Agrawal, who has worked with the abandoned animal since she was a cub.
Completely unaware of her enormous frame, the leopard spots her friend and leaps up onto a platform, trying to sit on her lap and scrambling all over her, much as a kitten would. The big cat, whose coat appears to be solid black because her spots are hard to distinguish, was abandoned by her mother when it was just a few hours old.
She was taken to Cheetah Experience, a charity which carries out conservation work in South Africa, where she was raised by volunteer Juhi Agrawal who is pictured in the video. Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen, founder of the charity, said: ‘She is just jumping and playing like they would in a tree.
‘The human interaction enriches their lives in captivity. We take them out on walks so they are not in the cages all the time. Pardus loves her walks on the plains.
‘When she is a bit older, we will introduce her to our breeding programme which is aimed at preventing the animals from becoming extinct.’
Ms Van Nieuwenhuizen said: ‘When we found her she weighed just 300g, which is quite light for a leopard cub. Normally they weigh 500g when they are born.
‘We suspect her mother abandoned her because she did not have enough milk for her.
‘She was completely helpless so we took her in. She would not have survived otherwise.’
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VIDEO
How beautiful! When I am so depressed over all the bad things that people do to each other and animals, I come here to this site and it makes believe in human kindness once again. I come here a lot....
That is so beautiful to see how much he loves her. Thank you for sharing this.
Nice to see this , no matter what. I love this.