Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), Monday 23 February 1914, page 5


BIG GAME

LEOPARD ESCAPES FROM ZOO

SENSATION IN MELBOURNE

YOUXG GIRL'S THRILLING

EXPERIENCE.

MELBOURNE, February 22.

Having escaped before daylight yester-day - morning from the strong box in which it had been temporarily housed in the Zoological Gardens, a fierce leopard badly frightened the Misses Aline, Rita, and Hilda Le Souef, the daughters of the director of the gardens (Mr. D. Le Souef). Then, despite efforts to trace and capture it, the animal leapt the fence and wandered into Barkly street, Brunswick, where, after terrifying Mrs J. Walters, and chasing her daughter Winnie into the house, it took refuge in a tree in the backyard, and was here shot while fiercely attempting to charge Mr. Joseph C. Lacey, a neighbor who had come to the rescue. Having dispatched the brute with three bullets from his service rifle, Mr Lacey calmly rang up

the zoololgical gardens and informed the

anxious director that he could take de-

livery of the carcass at his convenience.

That the leopard had escaped was first noticed by Mr. Le Souef's three daughters, who were awakened to the fact in no enviable fashion. The three girls were sleeping in a room which was practically open, being merely wired in. The leopard disclosed it's pre-sence by prowling angrily up and down an front of the room and growling, and very soon the girls were wide awake, "lt's a leopard! It's a leopard!" they shrieked to their father, who put in an appearance in the garden. "Don't go too close. He's dangerous."

Mr. Le Souef had been disturbed earlier in the morning by the savage barking of his terriers and the nervous cries of the deer. Thinking that some thing bad happened among the animals, lie slipped on a dressing-gown and slip-pers, and, with his dogs, hunted about the shrubbery and gardens, when the cries of his daughters were heard. Rea-lising that prompt action was necessaiy, Mr. Le Souef ran toward the animal, but it turned tail and bolted down a foot path, jumped over a fence, and vanished.

The dogs kept up the chase for a while and then came back. This was about 3 o'clock in the morning When the light grew stronger Mr. Le Souef went all over the gardens and found everything in order except the leopard's cage. The animal had been taken out of his cage on the previous evening and put into the strong box in which he had originally come from India. This had been strengthened by three or four 1/2in. nails, which were driven into the woodwork so that the sliding door would be doubly secured. The leopard secured a leverage on the door, forced it partly up, and then burst through with such strength that it drew the nails. Its footprints were followed, and a sys-tematic search made by two armed em-ployes, but without result.

With the enraged leopard close at her heels Miss Winnie Waters (the daughter

of Mrs. J. Waters) fled screaming down the yard of her mother's residence at Barkly street, Brunswick, and after reaching the back door in safety and slamming it behind her, collapsed in a faint. Release from her peril followed swiftly, however, for 10 minutes later Mr. Lacey, standing on the roof of a shed next door, shot the animal with a military rifle.

About 6.30 Miss Waters, who resides at 74 Barkley street, heard a terrific commo-tion among the fowls in the yard at the rear of the house, and went out to inves-tigate the cause. Reaching the fowl-yard, which is about 60 ft. from the back door, Miss Waters found the fowls huddled in one corner, cackling loudly. Thinking that a dog must have got into the yard, which Is enclosed by a frail wire fence, the girl went to a Iarge shed situated et one end of the yard, and, stooping, entered through a low doorway.

As she did so there was a savage snarl, and, to her horror, from a dark comer of the shed sprang a lithe spotted ani-mal, lashing its tail furiously from side

to side.

For a moment Miss Waters, paralysed by sudden fear, stood motionless in the doorway, while the leopard stood facing ber in the centre at the shed. Then ut-tering a piercing scream, she turned and fled, and as she did so the animal sprang,

missing her by a few inches. Down the yard Miss Waters ran, tripping, in her fright, over the branches of a large pep-per tree which grows in the fowlyard. For a moment the leopard, emerging Into the open, hesitated—a hesitation which probably saved Miss Waters' life—for by the time it made another bound she was close to the back door, which she slam-med behind her as her pursuer reached the gate of the fowlyard.

Armed and ready for the sudden emergency, it fell to Mr. Joseph Lacey to dispatch, the leopard, which he did with three shots, fired from the roof of a shed in the yard adjoining that of Mrs. J. Waters' premises in Barkly street,

Brunswick, where the fierce animal had taken refuge in a tree.

Mr. Lacey, who lived in Barkly street, and is employed at the Hart Printing Works, Flinders street, told a graphic story.

"Before I came into- town this morn-ing," he said, "news was brought to me by my cousin, Mr. A. Barningham, that a dangerous leopard or tiger had taken possession of a house in the neighbor hood. Having learned that it was on the premises of Mrs. J. Waters, of Barkly street, East Brunswick, I got my rifle and went to see to it. I went round to Mrs. Waters' house and found it tightly shut. Mrs. Waters, who was very much frightened, spoke to me through a little window. She said that the leopard was in one of the trees in her garden.

"Thinking that it might drop on me from a tree before I saw it, I went into the next yard and climbed on a small

shed with, a view of jumping over. I

had not done so when the brute, who had come to the ground and was prowl-ing about very angrily and evidently bent on mischief, saw me and made a spring. I got him with a bullet which checked him for a second, and then he sprang again, getting the bullet this time in the middle of the chest, He clung to the fence growling, and then I shot him in the head finished him."