Lemonal on Edge Again as Anri’s Return Alarms Village

Tonight, we’re looking at a jaguar whose story refuses to fade. Anri, once tagged and released as a conflict animal, is back in the headlines after officers recaptured the big cat in Lemonal Village. Forest officials say Anri had been preying on livestock, and now there’s a new twist, a damaged canine tooth that may be pushing the jaguar closer to human settlements. It raises tough questions about the future, and the safety of the community Anri keeps returning to. Acting Chief Forest Officer John Pinelo joins us with the latest.

 

John Pinelo, Acting Chief Forest Officer, Forest Department

“Anri was an animal captured in Hope Creek Area, it was captured near ANRI, which is why we call it Anri. It was captured and we relocated it to an area that has no communities or habitation. We collared it and were tracking it from time to time to make sure we knew where it was going. When we found out, and Jaguars travel, I think the report I read is that they can travel up to thirty miles a day, they have wide ranges. And so, it found its way up into the area of Lemonal. That is when we got the complaints. We started communicating with eh community and that is how we got the cage to try and catch the animal. We set the cage late last week and that is when we captured the animal. We moved it to our location to do an assessment. Preliminary report from the vet is that it has a lot of screwworms and one of its canines has recently been broken. All indications are that it will be difficult to rerelease the animal. So we will have to find alternatives to rerelease the animal. Which will more than likely be putting it in an institution such as the zoo.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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