Leopard causes scare, halts Mercedes vehicles production

Production of Mercedes-Benz vehicles was temporarily halted last week in Chakan, India, when a leopard made its way into the automaker’s facility and wandered around for a few hours.

This caused some alarm for the employees, but they did not take matters into their own hands and this helped to save the situation.
News of production pauses are more often these days, especially with chip shortage adversely impacting vehicle assembly, forcing automakers to idle some assembly lines or fit cars with fewer electronically-controlled features.
In the case of the leopard-forced stoppage, the Chakan Forest Department and Wildlife SOS reportedly led the rescue of the lost and frightened animal around the plant.
The teams eventually found it around the manufacturing unit and stayed near piles of boxes and pallets. Once it stayed put long enough, the leopard was tranquilized from a safe distance and hurried off the factory.
According to Wildlife SOS, the leopard is male and about three years old. It took about four hours to complete the rescue, and plant operations paused for about six. The young leopard is currently under medical observation before its release in the wild.
While headlines like these grab attention, it also reflects the habitat loss for wildlife. Per Wildlife SOS, a likely factor for the leopard to head towards the plant is because of the adjoining areas surrounded by forest patches. The organization adds that the leopard possibly came from that area. Also, the Mercedes-Benz assembly line is in Maharashtra and has one of the highest population densities for leopards in the world.
Because of that, there is a chance something similar to this could happen again. Thankfully, the incident ended with humans and animals emerging unscathed and unharmed.
The Mercedes-Benz plant in India assembles models such as the C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, and CLA Coupé. It also rolls out the GLA, GLC, GLE, and GLS crossovers. The plant has been exporting the GLC to the US since 2018.

Source: Wildlife SOS via Youtube