Every carmaker has experienced production delays in the past years, with the main causes being the pandemic, the chip shortage, or other supply chain problems. But a delay caused by such a crazy reason as a leopard shutting off the factory is extremely rare.
As strange as it seems, this has happened in a Mercedes-Benz factory in Chakan, India. A leopard wandered into the factory and scared the workers, causing the production lines to stop for six hours. Even though India is home to the largest population of leopards in the world, such big felines being fond of Mercedes-Benz cars is unheard of. It’s actually on the opposite, as Benzes are horrible cars for leopards, so they try to stay away for the most part.
Anyway, as the big cat entered the factory, the panic-stricken staff alerted the State Forrest Department, which understandably outsourced the operation. According to Wildlife SOS, the animal rescue organization that carried out the rescue operation, the scary feline was a three-year-old male leopard that apparently got confused and entered the factory by mistake.
The team of six secured the facility and evacuated the employees before tracking down the animal and tranquilizing it from a safe distance. The young leopard was then examined for any injuries and cleared for release back into the wild.
“Due to rapid habitat loss, leopards of Maharashtra are being forced to venture into human-dominated areas,” Wildlife SOS said in a release about the incident. “Our team is trained to ensure that such situations are handled with the utmost caution, keeping in mind the safety of the leopard as well as humans.”
Happily, this story ended with no injuries for the people working at the Mercedes-Benz factory or the leopard itself. As incredible as it seems, this is not the first time a leopard blocks a car factory in India. It has also happened five years ago when a feline entered a Maruti-Suzuki factory in New Delhi. It took a response team 36 hours to find and remove the animal from the factory premises. Now this tells a lot about leopards' car preferences.
After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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