Shot, poisoned and beaten to death: why leopard killings are soaring in Pakistan

A wave of incidents threatens the survival of the species in the country, say conservationists

Inside the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, in Islamabad, two taxidermists work on a leopard skin. They scrape away at the remaining flesh and sprinkle the underside with boric acid powder. It's difficult to look away from the two holes where the leopard's eyes should be.

We ask conservation groups, if they find any dead specimen, to relay it to us so that we can preserve it and make it available to young researchers," says Muhammad Asif Khan, the museum's director of zoological science. This particular leopard died from gunshot wounds in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region," he says.

Clockwise from main image: taxidermists at the Pakistan Natural History Museum work on a leopard specimen that was shot in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region; Asif Khan holds a piece of shot; a bullet hole or shot wound can be seen in the pelt