“I was just bored and decided I wanted to be a cat burglar,” Slivers told 23ABC in a jailhouse interview. “So I kicked in the window and tried to steal the lion but it was too heavy, so I stole the cat.”

“I took the leopard to my hotel. I then decided I wanted the dingo so I went back and took it. I took it to Jack In The Box because I wanted to have breakfast with it.”

23ABC asked Slivers what he was planning on doing with the dingo and he replied, “I was going to take it around town with me.”

Slivers told 23ABC he hadn’t taken his medicine for over a week.

Police found the other animal, an African leopard, in Silvers’ hotel room. Link  -via Arbroath

Wildlife experts thought leopards were locally extinct in Afghanistan, but this one was captured snarling at a camera trap in September. The camera trap, set by the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Afghan central highlands, also caught pictures of lynx, wild cats, wolves, red foxes, stone martens, and even a pair of poachers. See them in a gallery at National Geographic. Link

(Image credit: WCS Afghanistan Program)

The Sundaland clouded leopard, a little understood species of leopard located in Borneo, has been filmed for the first time. It was only classified as a separate species a few years ago, and listed as endangered in 2008.

The leopard, a healthy-looking animal a metre long (3 feet) and weighing about 40 kilos (90 pounds) was caught on video at night at the Dermakot Forest Reserve in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state.

“What surprised us was that while clouded leopards are very elusive cats, this one was not scared at all,” said Azlan Mohamed, a field scientist with University Sabah Malaysia.

“Despite our powerful spot lights and the roar of our vehicle’s engine, it walked around our vehicle calmly,” he told AFP.

Link (with video)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of danger! Student photographer Casey Gutteridge snapped this priceless photo of a daring rat literally stealing food from right under the nose of a leopard:

The little rat – thought to be only two to three months old – was spotted scampering into the leopard’s enclosure shortly after feeding time at the Santago Rare Leopard Project, in Hertfordshire.

So intent was the plucky rodent on its mission to snatch a tasty snack, that it seemed not to notice that its path was taking it within a whisker’s breadth of 12-year-old Sheena.

Clutching a corner of raw meat with its tiny paws, the rat busily tucked in, until it sensed one of those whiskers moving in.

Sheena, bemused by the interloper coming between her and the remains of dinner, padded over on paws big enough to wreak vengeance with a single swipe.

But rather than giving the thief at very least the hearty set down it deserved, she gingerly lowered her nose for an exploratory sniff.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Oomi.