00:00We love you Cole, you're such a beautiful boy. Say cheers to everyone.
00:07Alright guys, so a bit of bad news unfortunately recently Cole had to be put down and Cole for
00:18those of you who know it was our oldest black leopard. Probably gonna give a hissy hissy at
00:25the camera. No he's not. Hey boy. There he is. There's the talking. Cole has always had a typical male
00:34temperament. If Cole can get something from me he's going to come and try and get it. That can be
00:43affection and that could be food. So when I come into this enclosure and I don't have food then
00:53Cole will come for a quick scratch and that's that. Then he will move away like he's just done
01:00into the the shade of the tree and then you try and approach him at your own peril.
01:09He wants to be left alone and he's happy to be on his own. He managed 23 years of age
01:16but yeah
01:17unfortunately his health deteriorated to the point where he actually fell ill and we had to take
01:24him to Doc Caldwell for some tests and to just put him on support and yeah when we did the
01:33we did the
01:34x-rays and we did the assessment the prognosis was not good and the decision was made to put Cole
01:43to sleep
01:44because the quality of life that he was leading was not beneficial anymore. So unfortunately I had to
01:53make the the difficult decision obviously in collaboration with the professionals and yeah
02:02as difficult as it was I think it was the right decision. So yeah Cole what can I say he
02:11was
02:11a lovely cat a typical leopard very much to himself very selfish at times and yeah he was he was
02:22definitely unique as a character.
02:28Charlie? Yeah.
02:38Cole you got my finger there?
02:41Nice one. Are you all right? Yeah right through. Yeah. See how quick leopards are?
03:03I lived in harmony with Nikita who is still doing well and actually yeah coping very well in his absence
03:16um and yeah just Cole what can I say he was he was a fantastic character he was Cole um
03:23he would come up
03:23for a little bit of love mostly for food. Nikakoli
03:33their favorite treat in the whole wide world and then he would saunter off into the bushes hunker down and
03:43just keep a watchful eye on you and he wasn't very comfortable on camera hence why there's not a lot
03:49of videos of him out there on my channel um because why you know why push him when he doesn't
03:57want to be
03:57filmed so yeah that was that was him that was his character um never ever gave me trouble um so
04:06you know most
04:07people would tell you that a leopard um in captivity is a tricky animal and that most people who have
04:16relationships with leopards land up on the receiving end of their jaws and claws uh this wasn't the case
04:24with Cole at all guys. In fact the only time I really ever got an injury from Cole is when
04:32I misjudged
04:33the speed of a leopard and you know was throwing a piece of meat for him to load into the
04:38vehicle
04:38and uh he caught my hand with his claw um unintentional and uh just yeah leopards are super um predators
04:47as we
04:48have all learned. Cole's now giving us a display of his cuteness he's saying anything Nikita can do I can
04:58do too Kev I'm just as cute you know that he's caught sight of the fluffy on top of the
05:05camera and uh that
05:08guys it's irresistible for a black leopard. Cole weighs about well he used to weigh about 60 kilos
05:1760 65 in his prime and now he weighs about 55. Look at those claws yo Koli yeah I'll give
05:31you um
05:33um egg now
05:39and that is typical Cole behavior what he's just done there.
05:45Cole when he can't get his own way what does he do?
05:49Hey Cole what do we do when we don't get our own way?
05:54That's exactly what we do we hiss yeah yeah that's what we do.
06:01Okay I've just gone out to get Cole his egg
06:06um I see she's seen what I'm up to and she's gonna try she's gonna try and pull her Nikita
06:14moves
06:24the camera yeah the camera is not for you to no no no no no
06:35Cole no it's a camera so put the camera down
06:41and immediately he thinks oh there's something there for him to eat
06:46now he realizes that there's nothing there for him to eat so he goes away to lie down to wait
06:56now he's gonna wait to see um when I bring out the pilchards I'm gonna go and get you some
07:02pilchards
07:02how how's about that you want pilchards Koli pilchards yeah okay is that a yes okay okay so a lot
07:12of
07:12people want to know why pilchards the reason why is that it's a great snack for them it's a beautiful
07:21source of omega-3s and they really they really do love it
07:33Koli boy last thing for you buddy last thing here yeah just wait
07:57the everything spray is having the whole works today it's the works treatment for Cole yeah
08:03there the works treatment
08:10hmm okay rolls around in that
08:28floppy floppy floppy floppy
08:38and that is one happy cat we had the royal treatment today
08:44okay so leopards generally live around about 12 to 15 years in the wild
08:53Cole surpassed that quite considerably by living to 23 and the arthritis in his joints got so severe
09:03that he was battling to walk he had lost the integrity of the Achilles tendon which tended to make him
09:11walk a bit flat-footed he had lost muscle condition in the hindquarters so it was making life very difficult
09:18to walk and to jump onto things and he had also pretty much lost his vision so he had gone
09:25pretty blind in the the latter months of his life
09:30and so yes the decision was made to put him to sleep
09:35not an easy decision guys it was in collaboration with a multitude of people but ultimately yeah the
09:46decision rested on my squarely on my shoulders and I always say in cases like this it's bittersweet
09:54bitter in the sense that we've lost a friend here at the sanctuary and poor old Nikita has got to
09:59spend
09:59the remaining months on her own although I must say leopards can cope with this a lot better than other
10:06animals due to their solitary nature and so yeah that's the the bitter part the sweet part is obviously
10:15his Cole is no longer in captivity and he's free and that is you know again a mandate that I've
10:26fulfilled
10:26I made the promise to Cole to look after him as best I could throughout his life I think we
10:33gave him a
10:34fantastic quality of life and in a captive environment so Cole we salute you we celebrate you
10:42and I hope you all watch and enjoy this video and as a tribute to the wonderful Cole bye
10:54we'll leave you to it my boy
10:59are you seeing yourself hey yeah that's you that's more like it that's more like you
11:08we love you Cole you're such a beautiful boy say cheers to everyone
11:25you
11:32you
11:33you
11:33you
11:33you
