BENGALURU: A six-year-old tribal boy happily played with two cubs (baby leopards) for two days mistaking them for cats. He found them in the nearby bushes two days ago and brought them home carrying in his arms.

Feeding them milk and food, he did not let them go out of his vicinity. His parents, too, did not know that the tiny animals their son was playing were cubs until the neighbours noticed and raised an alarm. Finally, forest officials arrived at the boy's house and took the cubs in their custody and released them into the forest around 10 km away.

The episode, took place in tribal hamlet Paderu in Andhra's Visakhapatnam district. "The boy brought them home two days ago and was playing. We did not mind since they were cats. We gave them milk for two days. They were allowed to move free in the home. But, neighbours told us that they are baby leopard, but not cats. Then the forest officials came and took them away," the boy's mother Saraswathi told local media.

However, forest officials said the boy would have been in danger if the mother leopard was anywhere near the spot. Usually, a leopardess gives birth to two to six cubs at a time. The cubs, which open eyes only after 10 days of birth, remain under the mother's care till they turn two.

Courtesy TOI