Polish councilor suspects local zoo is doing Putin's bidding

Polish councilor suspects local zoo is doing Putin's bidding

It concerns the zoo's intention to host pairs of Persian leopards, an endangered species, help them reproduce and then release the offspring back into the wild.

However, Grzes observed that Putin, too, has been for years "propagating" the same cause of saving this species.

"I had to intervene," he told Poland's TVN24, explaining why Poznan's city hall was now dealing with his question about the zoo implementing a foreign power's dictate.

Other councilors "laughed" when the question was read, the broadcaster said. But this is not the first time that Grzes has paid close attention to the goings on in the zoo. Seven years ago he suspected a young elephant, who was "beating female elephants with his trunk," of being gay.

Another Polish zoo, that it the town of Plock, also hosts "Putin's leopard fifth column."

These animals currently number no more than 1,290 in the wild, in their natural habitats in the Caucasus, Anatolia, Turkmenistan, northern Iran and western Afghanistan.

In 2014 Russia actively joined the efforts to save the endangered species in its Caucasus area.