May 7 (UPI) — Wildlife authorities are hunting for a leopard at one of Uganda’s most-visited national parks, after the animal killed a three-year-old boy there.
Officials said a nanny was caring for the boy at an unfenced area of a park lodge. When the caretaker walked outside at one point Friday, the boy followed.
“The maid was not aware the child followed her. She heard the kid scream for help, she intervened but it was too late the leopard had vanished with it in the bush,” UWA spokesman Bashir Hangi said. “The hunt is on with the intention of capturing the leopard and removing it from the wild because once it has eaten human flesh, the temptations are high to eat another human being. It becomes dangerous.”
Officials said searchers later found part of the boy’s remains.
The child, Elisha Nabugyere, was the son of Ugandan Wildlife Authority ranger Doreen Ayera, who works in the 764-square-mile Queen Elizabeth National Park in the southwest part of the country.
The leopard attack was the first in 40 years, a spokesman for South Africa’s Kruger National Park said.
Queen Elizabeth National Park, which hosts an assortment of indigenous wild animals, is Uganda’s most-visited national park.
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