This is the dramatic moment a very angry leopard was hauled from the bottom of a village well in southern India on Friday.<br /><br />The big cat is thought to have fallen into the water source as it tried to flee the village in Udupi District with a dog in its mouth.<br /><br />Villagers were woken in the middle of the night by the sound of a dog barking from the bottom of the well. <br /><br />When they got to the well, they found the dog and the leopard both stuck 15-20 feet below. <br /><br />Realising the leopard must have dropped the dog as it fell into the water source, villagers lost no time in pulling the canine to safety with the help of a rope and a basket. <br /><br />Forest Department staff arrived at around 9am local time to attempt the much more dangerous task of rescuing the leopard, which was by now distressed and angry.<br /><br />They lowered a cage into the well with four ropes and eventually managed to goad the snarling cat inside. <br /><br />The cage was then slowly raised from the well. <br /><br />The entire rescue operation took around 90 minutes.<br /><br />"It was a male leopard about five or six years old. It was very healthy,” said Sharath Shetty from the Forest Department.<br /><br />The leopard will be relocated.
