leopard attack

File:Man being attacked by a panther - Sala della Sfinge - Domus aurea - Rome - 2.png fresco in the Sala della Sfinge, Domus Aurea, Rome, 65-68 A.D.]]

In 1970, South African paleontologist C. K. Brain showed that a juvenile Paranthropus robustus individual, SK 54, had been killed by a leopard at Swartkrans in Gauteng, South Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Brain |first1=C. K. |author-link=Charles Kimberlin Brain |year=1970 |title=New finds at the Swartkrans australopithecine site |journal=Nature |volume=225 |issue=5238 |pages=1112–1119 |doi=10.1038/2251112a0 |pmid=5418243 |bibcode=1970Natur.225.1112B |s2cid=4183327 }}{{cite book |last=Brain |first=C. K. |author-link=Charles Kimberlin Brain |title=The hunters or the hunted?: An introduction to African cave taphonomy |year=1981 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226070896 |pages=97–98, 266–274}} The SK 54 cranium bears two holes in the back of the skull—holes that perfectly match the width and spacing of lower leopard canine teeth. The leopard appears to have dragged its kill into a tree to eat in seclusion, much like leopards do today. Numerous leopard fossils have been found at the site, suggesting that the felids were predators of early hominids.{{cite journal |last1=Lee-Thorp |first1=J. |last2=Thackeray |first2=J. F. |last3=Van der Merwe |first3=N. |year=2000 |title=The hunters and the hunted revisited |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=565–576 |doi=10.1006/jhev.2000.0436 |pmid=11102267}} The revelation that these injuries were not the result of interpersonal aggression but were leopard-inflicted dealt a fatal blow to the then-popular killer ape theory.{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=D. L. |last2=Sussman |first2=R. W. |title=Man the hunted: Primates, predators, and human evolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SnCri7yNDLgC&pg=PA1 |year=2005 |publisher=Westview Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=9780813339368 |pages=1–11, 60–62 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Another hominid fossil consisting of a 6-million-year-old Orrorin tugenensis femur (BAR 1003'00), recovered from the Tugen Hills in Kenya, preserves puncture damage tentatively identified as leopard bite marks.{{cite journal |last1=Gommery |first1=G. |last2=Pickford |first2=M. |last3=Senut |first3=B. |year=2007 |title=A case of carnivore-inflicted damage to a fossil femur from Swartkrans, comparable to that on a hominid femur representing Orrorin tugenensis, BAR 1003'00 (Kenya) |journal=Annals of the Transvaal Museum |volume=44 |pages=215–218 |hdl=10499/AJ6687 |issn=0041-1752 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10499/AJ6687 |access-date=22 March 2013 |archive-date=16 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231116082337/https://journals.co.za/ |url-status=live }} This fossil evidence, along with modern studies of primate–leopard interaction, has fueled speculation that leopard predation played a major role in primate evolution, particularly on cognitive development.{{cite journal |last1=Zuberbühler |first1=K. |last2=Jenny |first2=D. |year=2002 |title=Leopard predation and primate evolution |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=873–886 |doi=10.1006/jhev.2002.0605 |pmid=12473487 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/278634/files/Zuberbuhler_K.-Leopard_predation_20170202124152-KH.pdf |access-date=2019-02-13 |archive-date=2018-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719184204/http://doc.rero.ch/record/278634/files/Zuberbuhler_K.-Leopard_predation_20170202124152-KH.pdf |url-status=live }}

Reducing human–leopard conflict has proven difficult. Conflict tends to increase during periods of drought or when the leopard's natural prey becomes scarce. Shrinking leopard habitat and growing human populations also increase conflict. In Uganda, retaliatory attacks on humans increased when starving villagers began expropriating leopards' kills (a feeding strategy known as kleptoparasitism).{{cite journal |last1=Treves |first1=A. |last2=Naughton-Treves |first2=L. |year=2009 |title=Risk and opportunity for humans coexisting with large carnivores |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=275–282 |doi=10.1006/jhev.1998.0268 |pmid=10074384}} The economic damage resulting from loss of livestock to carnivores caused villagers in Bhutan's Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park to lose more than two-thirds of their annual cash income in 2000, with leopards blamed for 53% of the losses.{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=S. W. |last2=Macdonald |first2=D. W. |year=2006 |title=Livestock predation by carnivores in Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, Bhutan |journal=Biological Conservation |volume=129 |issue=4 |pages=558–565 |doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2005.11.024 }} Like other large carnivores, leopards are capable of surplus killing. Under normal conditions, prey are too scarce for this behavior, but when the opportunity presents itself leopards may instinctually kill in excess for later consumption.{{cite book |last=Kruuk |first=H. |title=Hunter and hunted: Relationships between carnivores and people |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521814102 |pages=51–53, 58–60, 104}} One leopard in Cape Province, South Africa killed 51 sheep and lambs in a single incident.{{cite journal |last1=Stuart |first1=C. T. |year=1986 |title=The incidence of surplus killing by Panthera pardus and Felis caracal in Cape Province, South Africa |journal=Mammalia |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=556–558 |issn=0025-1461 |doi=10.1515/mamm.1986.50.4.553 }}

Translocation (the capture, transport, and release) of "problem leopards", as with other territorial felids, is generally ineffective: translocated leopards either immediately return or other leopards move in and claim the vacant territory. One translocated leopard in Cape Province traveled nearly {{convert|500|km|mi}} to return to his old territory.{{Cite report |author=Jewell, P. A. |date=1982 |title=Conservation of the cheetah: Should cheetah be moved to distant areas? |url=http://www.catsg.org/cheetah/05_library/5_3_publications/I_and_J/Jewell_et_al_1982_Should_cheetah_be_moved_to_distant_areas.pdf |publisher=Unpublished workshop report, International Fund for Animal Welfare |location=Cambridge |access-date=27 March 2013 |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012062536/http://www.catsg.org/cheetah/05_library/5_3_publications/I_and_J/Jewell_et_al_1982_Should_cheetah_be_moved_to_distant_areas.pdf |url-status=live }} Translocations are also expensive, tend to result in high mortality (up to 70%), and may make leopards more aggressive towards humans, thus failing as both a management and a conservation strategy.{{cite journal |last1=Athreya |first1=V. |last2=Odden |first2=M. |last3=Linnell |first3=J. D. C. |last4=Karanth |first4=K. U. |year=2011 |title=Translocation as a tool for mitigating conflict with leopards in human-dominated landscapes of India |journal=Conservation Biology |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=133–141 |doi=10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01599.x |pmid=21054526 }}{{cite journal |last1=Athreya |first1=V. R. |last2=Thakur |first2=S. S. |last3=Chaudhuri |first3=S. |last4=Belsare |first4=A. V. |year=2007 |title=Leopards in human-dominated areas: A spillover from sustained translocations into nearby forests? |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=45–50 |issn=0006-6982 }}{{cite journal |last1=Treves |first1=A. |last2=Karanth |first2=K. U. |year=2003 |title=Human-carnivore conflict and perspectives on carnivore management worldwide |journal=Conservation Biology |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=1491–1499 |doi=10.1111/j.1523-1739.2003.00059.x }}{{cite journal |last1=Linnell |first1=J. D. C. |last2=Aanes |first2=R. |last3=Swenson |first3=J. E. |last4=Odden |first4=J. |last5=Smith |first5=M. E. |year=1997 |title=Translocation of carnivores as a method for managing problem animals: A review |journal=Biodiversity and Conservation |volume=6 |issue=9 |pages=1245–1257 |doi=10.1023/B:BIOC.0000034011.05412.cd |s2cid=32511170 }} Historically, lethal control of problem animals was the primary method of conflict management. Although this remains the situation in many countries, leopards are afforded the highest legal protection in India under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972—only man-eaters can be killed and only when they are considered likely to continue to prey on humans.{{Cite report |author= |date=2011 |title=Guidelines for human-leopard conflict management |url=http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/guidelines-human-leopard-conflict-management.pdf |publisher=Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India |page=17 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121223020430/http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/guidelines-human-leopard-conflict-management.pdf |archive-date=23 December 2012 |url-status=dead }} In Uttarakhand, the state with the most severe human–leopard conflict, 45 leopards were legally declared man-eaters and shot by wildlife officials between 2001 and 2010.

Where legal, herders may shoot at leopards who prey on their livestock. An injured leopard may become an exclusive predator of livestock if it is unable to kill normal prey, since domesticated animals typically lack natural defenses.{{cite journal |last1=Linnell |first1=J. D. C. |last2=Odden |first2=J. |last3=Smith |first3=M. E. |last4=Aanes |first4=R. |last5=Swenson |first5=J. E. |year=1999 |title=Large carnivores that kill livestock: Do "problem individuals" really exist? |journal=Wildlife Society Bulletin |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=698–705 |jstor=3784091 }} Frequent livestock-raiding may cause leopards to lose their fear of humans, and shooting injuries may have caused some leopards to become man-eaters. There has been increasing acceptance that the "problem leopard" paradigm may be anthropomorphization of normal carnivore behavior, and that translocations are unlikely to stop livestock depredation. In an effort to reduce the shooting of "problem leopards" and lessen the financial burden on herders, some governments provide monetary compensation, although the sum is often less than the value of the lost livestock.

The leopard is largely a nocturnal hunter. For its size, it is the most powerful large felid after the jaguar, able to drag a carcass larger than itself up a tree.{{cite book |last=Nowak |first=R. M. |title=Walker's carnivores of the world |year=2005 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore, Maryland |isbn=9780801880339 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/walkerscarnivore0000nowa/page/264 264–268] |url=https://archive.org/details/walkerscarnivore0000nowa/page/264 }} Leopards can run more than {{convert|60|km/h}}, leap more than {{convert|6|m|ft}} horizontally and {{convert|3|m|ft}} vertically, and have a more developed sense of smell than tigers. They are strong climbers and can descend down a tree headfirst. Man-eating leopards have earned a reputation as being particularly bold and difficult to track. British hunters Jim Corbett (1875–1955) and Kenneth Anderson (1910–1974) wrote that hunting leopards presented more challenges than any other animal.{{cite book |editor1-first=K. |editor1-last=Nowell |editor2-first=P. |editor2-last=Jackson |title=Wild cats: Status survey and conservation action plan |access-date=21 March 2013 |year=1996 |publisher=International Union for Conservation of Nature |location=Gland, Switzerland |isbn=9782831700458 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxfxlpfXNtcC&pg=PA194 |pages=193–195 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book |first=K. |last=Anderson |title=Nine man-eaters and one rogue |access-date=21 March 2013 |year=1955 |publisher=E. P. Dutton |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/NineMan-eatersAndOneRogue1954 |oclc=529362 |pages=36–51}} Indian naturalist J. C. Daniel (1927–2011), former curator of the Bombay Natural History Society, reprinted many early twentieth-century accounts of man-eating leopards in his book The Leopard in India: A Natural History (Dehradun: Natraj Publishers, 2009). One such account in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society describes the unique danger posed by leopards:

Like the tiger, the panther [leopard] sometimes takes to man-eating, and a man-eating panther is even more to be dreaded than a tiger with similar tastes, on account of its greater agility, and also its greater stealthiness and silence. It can stalk and jump, and...can climb better than a tiger, and it can also conceal itself in astonishingly meager cover, often displaying uncanny intelligence in this act. A man-eating panther frequently breaks through the frail walls of village huts and carries away children and even adults as they lie asleep.

One study concluded that only 9 of 152 documented man-eating leopards were female.{{cite book |last=Turnbull-Kemp |first=P. |title=The leopard |year=1967 |publisher=Howard Timmins |location=Cape Town |oclc=715383208 |pages=130–146}} Drawing on the sex and physical condition of 78 man-eating leopards, the same study concluded that man-eaters were typically uninjured mature males (79.5%), with a fewer number of aged and immature males (11.6% and 3.8%, respectively). Once a leopard has killed and eaten a human, they are likely to persist as man-eaters—they may even show a nearly exclusive preference for humans. In "Man-Eaters of Kumaon", Jim Corbett mentioned that leopards are driven to man-eating by acquiring a taste for human flesh due to scavenging on corpses thrown into the jungle during an epidemic and also due to humans being an easier catch, than other species they prey upon. He wrote,"A leopard, in an area in which his natural food is scarce, finding these bodies very soon acquires a taste for human flesh, and when the disease dies down and normal conditions are established, he very naturally, on finding his food supply cut off, takes to killing human beings". Of the two man-eating leopards of Kumaon, which between them killed 525 people, the Panar Leopard followed on the heels of a very severe outbreak of cholera, while the Rudraprayag Leopard followed the 1918 influenza epidemic which was particularly deadly in India.The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, Jim Corbett, Oxford university press, {{ISBN|0-19-562256-1}} Corbett wrote that the Rudraprayag man-eater once broke into a pen holding 40 goats, but instead of attacking the livestock it killed and ate the sleeping 14-year-old boy who had been assigned to guard them.

Leopard attacks on humans tend to occur at night, and often close to villages. There have been documented incidents of leopards forcing their way into human dwellings at night and attacking the inhabitants in their sleep.{{cite journal |last1=Löe |first1=J. |last2=Röskaft |first2=E. |year=2004 |title=Large carnivores and human safety: A review |journal=Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=283–288 |doi=10.1579/0044-7447-33.6.283 |pmid=15387060 |s2cid=37886162}} A number of fatal attacks have also occurred in zoos and homes with pet leopards.{{cite journal |last1=Bahram |first1=R. |last2=Burke |first2=J. E. |last3=Lanzi |first3=G. L. |year=2004 |title=Head and neck injury from a leopard attack: Case report and review of the literature |journal=Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=247–249 |doi=10.1016/j.joms.2003.04.015 |pmid=14762761 }}{{cite journal |last1=Cohle |first1=S. D. |last2=Harlan |first2=C. W. |last3=Harlan |first3=G. |year=1990 |title=Fatal big cat attacks |journal=American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=208–212 |pmid=2220706 |doi=10.1097/00000433-199009000-00007|s2cid=27798371 }}{{cite journal |last1=Hejna |first1=P. |year=2010 |title=A fatal leopard attack |journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=832–834 |doi=10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01329.x |pmid=20202061 |s2cid=9055717 }}{{cite journal |last1=Vogel |first1=J. S. |last2=Parker |first2=J. R. |last3=Jordan |first3=F. B. |last4=Coury |first4=T. L. |last5=Vernino |first5=A. R. |year=2000 |title=Persian leopard (Panthera pardus) attack in Oklahoma: Case report |journal=American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=264–269 |pmid=10990290 |doi=10.1097/00000433-200009000-00017}} During predatory attacks, leopards typically bite their prey's throat or the nape of the neck, lacerating or severing jugular veins and carotid arteries, causing rapid exsanguination. The spine may be crushed and the skull perforated, exposing the brain. Survivors of attacks typically suffer extensive trauma to the head, neck, and face. Multibacterial infection resulting from the contamination of wounds by leopard oral flora occurs in 5–30% of attack survivors, complicating recovery. Before the advent of antibiotics, 75% of attack survivors died from infection.{{cite book |last=Auerbach |first=P. S. |title=Wilderness Medicine |url=http://www.mdconsult.com/books/page.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4377-1678-8..00056-8--s0185&isbn=978-1-4377-1678-8&type=bookPage&from=content&uniqId=407044750-2 |access-date=29 March 2013 |year=2012 |publisher=Mosby |location=Philadelphia |isbn=9781437716788 |edition=6th |pages=1114–1115 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040012/http://www.mdconsult.com/books/page.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4377-1678-8..00056-8--s0185&isbn=978-1-4377-1678-8&type=bookPage&from=content&uniqId=407044750-2 |url-status=live }}

File:PanarManeater.jpg

File:Corbett4.jpg poses after shooting the Rudraprayag leopard on 2 May 1926]]

• Leopard of Panar: The Leopard of Panar was a male leopard reported as being responsible for at least 400 fatal attacks on humans in the Panar region of the Almora district, situated in Kumaon Northern India in the early 20th century. Jim Corbett heard of the leopard while hunting the Champawat tiger in 1907, and in 1910 he set out to kill it. Although it apparently claimed significantly more lives than the Rudraprayag man-eater, the Panar man-eater received less attention from the British Indian press, which Corbett attributed to the remoteness of Almora.{{cite book |last=Corbett |first=E. J. |author-link=Jim Corbett |title=The temple tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon |url=https://archive.org/details/TheTempleTigerAndMoreMan-eatersOfKumaon1954 |access-date=29 March 2013 |year=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press | location=London |oclc=1862625 |pages=64–86}}
• Leopard of the Central Provinces
• Leopard of Rudraprayag
• Leopard of Gummalapur
• Leopard of the Yellagiri Hills
• Leopard of the Golis Range: In 1899 British officer H. G. C. Swayne (1860–1940) wrote of a man-eating leopard that had allegedly killed more than 100 humans in the Golis Mountains of British Somaliland. Swayne's brief account appears in the volume Great and Small Game of Africa (London: Roland Ward, 1899), edited by the prominent British naturalist Henry Bryden (1854–1937):

  In 1889 there was a leopard, said to be a panther, which had haunted the Mirso ledge of the Golis range for some years, and was supposed to have killed over a hundred people. It was in the habit of lying in wait at a corner of a very dark, rough jungle path, where huge rocks overlooked the track; and the Somalis used to show a boulder, some 6 feet high, a yard from the path, in the flat top of which was a depression shaped like a panther's body, from which the beast was said to spring upon travellers.{{cite book |editor1-last=Bryden |editor1-first=H. A. |last1=Swayne |first1=H. G. C. |title=Great and small game of Africa: An account of the distribution, habits, and natural history of the sporting mammals, with personal hunting experiences |location=London |publisher=Roland Ward |year=1899 |pages=575–579 |chapter=The leopard in Somaliland |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/greatsmallgameof00majo |oclc=11014130}}

  According to Swayne, leopards were more abundant in the Golis Mountains than anywhere else in British Somaliland, and were responsible for 90% of all attacks on sheep and goats. The rocky terrain of the Golis made tracking and killing leopards next to impossible. At the time of the attacks, this remote territory remained largely unexplored by the British, and little else is known of the Golis Range man-eater.
• Leopard of the Mulher Valley: In 1903 L. S. Osmaston (1870–1969), a conservator employed by the Imperial Forestry Service, reported that a man-eating leopard had killed more than 30 humans in the Mulher Valley between 1901 and 1902.{{cite journal |last1=Osmaston |first1=L. S. |year=1904 |title=A man-eating panther |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=15 |pages=135–138 |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofbombayn15bomb |access-date=22 March 2013}} Osmaston twice set out to kill the leopard in February and March 1902, but was unsuccessful. His forestry work required him to leave Mulher later that month, and he was unable to return until late November. The leopard's last attack occurred a few days later on 3 December:

  I heard a boy of 15 had been killed at Wadai, {{convert|4|mi|km|0|disp=sqbr}} from my camp; this boy was most unfortunate. Last year the panther had tried to get him, but only mauled one leg; my wife and I were able to dose the wound with carbolic oil and the boy got well; this time he and one or two others were sitting close to a bright fire on a threshing floor near the village in the early part of the night and the panther came and carried him off: the panther took him about a quarter of a mile [400 m] to a patch of high grass and brushwood and ate all he could of the head, the flesh of one leg and all his inside; so there was plenty left for the beast to come back for.

  Osmaston constructed a blind {{convert|11|m|ft}} from the boy's corpse and waited. The leopard returned to the area in the afternoon, but cautiously avoided approaching the body until after dark. When it finally ventured within shooting range, Osmaston fired with his double-barreled express rifle. The injured animal darted off into the night, and was killed the following morning when it was discovered alive some distance away. Osmaston speculated that the attacks began during the Indian famine of 1899–1900, the leopard having taken to man-eating after killing a dying person in the jungle. He also believed the man-eater was responsible for other fatal attacks in the nearby Dang and Dhule districts, but did not know the exact number of fatalities.
• Leopard of Kahani: Robert A. Sterndale (1839–1902) and James Forsyth (1838–1871) gave accounts of a man-eating leopard that killed "nearly a hundred persons" in the Seoni district between 1857 and 1860. When Sterndale received word of the attacks he pursued the man-eater with his brother-in-law, W. Brooke Thomson, but their efforts proved fruitless.{{cite book |last=Sterndale |first=R. A. |author-link=Robert Armitage Sterndale |title=Seonee; Or, camp life on the Satpura Range: A tale of Indian adventure |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924079586685 |access-date=22 March 2013 |year=1877 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington |location=London |oclc=27112858 |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924079586685/page/n397 370]–384, 452}} The breakout of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 sent Sterndale away for two years and ended his chance to capture the man-eater. The leopard evaded all attempts by locals to kill it and terrorized the villages of Dhuma and Kahani, sometimes killing three humans in a single night. According to Sterndale, the leopard preferred to consume blood rather than flesh, and most bodies showed few injuries other than telltale bite marks to the throat. A large reward was offered for the leopard's capture, and it was then unexpectedly killed one night by an inexperienced native hunter. When Forsyth passed through Seoni several years later, the leopard's story had become legendary. He later recounted a myth he had heard from the locals:

  A man and his wife were travelling back to their home from a pilgrimage to Benares, when they met on the road a panther. The woman was terrified; but the man said, "Fear not, I possess a charm by which I can transform myself into any shape. I will now become a panther, and remove this obstacle from the road, and on my return you must place this powder in my mouth, when I will recover my proper shape." He then swallowed his own portion of the magic powder, and assuming the likeness of the panther, persuaded him to leave the path. Returning to the woman, he opened his mouth to receive the transposing charm; but she, terrified by his dreadful appearance and open jaws, dropped it in the mire, and it was lost. Then, in despair, he killed the author of his misfortune, and ever after revenged himself on the race whose form he could never resume.{{cite book |last=Forsyth |first=J. |author-link=James Forsyth (traveller) |title=The highlands of central India: Notes on their forests and wild tribes, natural history, and sports |url=https://archive.org/details/highlandsofcentr00fors |access-date=22 March 2013 |year=1889 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London |edition=New |oclc=575941 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/highlandsofcentr00fors/page/334 334]–335}}

• Leopard of Punanai: The leopard called "man-eater of Punanai" is the only officially accounted for man-eating leopard of Sri Lanka, where leopard attacks rarely happen.{{cite news |author=Lal Anthonis |title=Panthera pardus kotiya, Lanka gets her own endemic leopard |publisher=The Sunday Times |url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/970921/plus15.html |date=2 September 1997 |access-date=2016-11-04 |archive-date=2021-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227043904/http://www.sundaytimes.lk/970921/plus15.html |url-status=live }}Kithsiri Gunawardena, "Cats in Sri Lanka & The Sri Lankan Leopard" accessed on http://www.wilpattu.com/sri-lankan-leopard.php {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104213159/http://www.wilpattu.com/sri-lankan-leopard.php |date=2016-11-04 }} at 4.11.2016. It killed at least 12 people on a jungle road near the hamlet of Punanai, not far from Batticaloa in the east of Sri Lanka. Its first victim was a child. Roper Shelton Agar, the hunter who killed it in August 1924, made a detailed record of the leopard and his killing of it. Agar relates that the man-eater was very bold and stealthy:{{citation |title=The man-eater of Punanai |author=Jayantha Jayawardene |work=The Sunday Observer |date=2014-04-02 |url=http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2014/03/02/spe10.asp |access-date=2016-11-04 |archive-date=2016-11-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104204851/http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2014/03/02/spe10.asp |url-status=live }} (A shortened account of the story by Roper S. Agar as published in the Sri Lanka Wildlife Society's magazine Loris Volume 1, December 1938, No. 5.)

"attacking even gangs of three or four people and carts. The beast never appears on the road, but stalks them through the jungle and at a suitable opportunity springs out upon one of the unfortunate stragglers."

After a failed attempt the previous day, Agar was successful in killing it when waiting for it in a tree hut that he got made near the corpse of a man that had been killed by the leopard, knowing that it would return to eat the remainder of the corpse:

"It was about 3 p.m. after a heavy shower, that the leopard came out. ... "licking" his chops, looking at his kill a few yards away, and looking at me. ... My 4790 was ready on my lap, the safety catch slipped up. I knew at that range I could place the bullet where I liked, and I chose the neck shot, as I knew at that angle the explosive bullet would rake the creature's vital organs. At the shot the leopard rolled over-stone-dead-never to do any more dirty work. ... At the sound of the shot, all my people and others who had collected round my car to wait for the result came running back. ... I wished to get out of the cursed place with its ugly sights as soon as possible. Corpse smells were suffocating me. ... The man-eater was not a very large leopard. ... He stood high off the ground, was in fine condition, and showed abnormal development for its size in respect of pads, neck muscles and head. The canine teeth were very long. He had a great number of knife wounds, old and new, showing that some of his victims had fought for their lives. ... I heard that his first victim was a young Moor boy, and that may possibly have been the beginning of his notorious career."

The leopard was stuffed and is now in the National Museum of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The leopard features in one of the books of Michael Ondaatje: The Man-eater of Punanai — a Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon (1992).

• On January 6, 2015, an Indian leopard injured a boy in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh.{{cite news |work=The Times of India |title=Boy injured in leopard attack |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Boy-injured-in-leopard-attack/articleshow/45799926.cms? |date=2015-01-08 |access-date=2018-05-14 |archive-date=2018-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613195152/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Boy-injured-in-leopard-attack/articleshow/45799926.cms |url-status=live }} Another leopard killed 2 men in Kolar district, Karnataka.{{cite news |work=The Deccan Herald |title=Man, grandson die in leopard attack in Kolar |url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/452231/man-grandson-die-leopard-attack.html |date=2015-01-08 |access-date=2015-01-11 |archive-date=2015-01-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108034754/http://www.deccanherald.com/content/452231/man-grandson-die-leopard-attack.html |url-status=live }} On January 13, 2015, a leopard injured a woman's neck with its paw in Jiuni Valley of Mandi district, while she had gone to collect fodder for household animals.{{cite news |work=Divya Himachal |title=पत्तियां जुटा रही महिला पर झपटा तेंदुआ |language=hi |url=http://www.divyahimachal.com/2015/01/पत्तियां-जुटा-रही-महिला-प/ |date=2015-01-13 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} On January 25, 2015, a leopard killed a girl in Galyat, Pakistan. This was one of a number of attacks that were reported in the area for over a year and a half.{{cite news |last=Sadaqat |first=Muhammad |title=Searching for food?: Girl killed in leopard attack |publisher=The Express Tribune |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/827523/searching-for-food-girl-killed-in-leopard-attack/ |date=2015-01-25 |access-date=2018-05-14 |archive-date=2018-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514214003/https://tribune.com.pk/story/827523/searching-for-food-girl-killed-in-leopard-attack/ |url-status=live }} The next day, a leopard mauled 5 people, seriously injuring 3, before being killed in Jalpaiguri district.{{cite news |work=PTI |title=Leopard mauls five, beaten to death |publisher=Zee News |url=http://zeenews.india.com/news/sci-tech/leopard-mauls-five-beaten-to-death_1536834.html |date=2015-01-26 |access-date=2015-01-27 |archive-date=2015-07-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704202949/http://zeenews.india.com/news/sci-tech/leopard-mauls-five-beaten-to-death_1536834.html |url-status=live }}
• On February 14, 2015, a leopard injured 2 villagers in Sagar district.{{cite news |work=The Hindustan Times |title=Two villagers injured in leopard attack in Madhya Pradesh |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/bhopal/two-villagers-injured-in-leopard-attack-in-madhya-pradesh/article1-1316933.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217120208/http://www.hindustantimes.com/bhopal/two-villagers-injured-in-leopard-attack-in-madhya-pradesh/article1-1316933.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2015 |date=2015-02-14 }} Four days later, a leopard injured 6 people in Shravasti district.{{cite news |work=The Times of India |title=Several injured in leopard attacks |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Several-injured-in-leopard-attacks/articleshow/46293078.cms |date=2015-02-19 |access-date=2015-02-19 |archive-date=2016-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923175408/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Several-injured-in-leopard-attacks/articleshow/46293078.cms |url-status=live }} On February 22, 2015, a girl was injured on the head when a leopard attacked her in Dingore village (approximately {{convert|20|km|mile|abbr=on}} from Junnar).{{cite news |work=The Times of India |title=14-year-old girl injured in leopard attack near Junnar |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/14-year-old-girl-injured-in-leopard-attack-near-Junnar/articleshow/46361560.cms |date=2015-02-22 |access-date=2015-02-27 |archive-date=2019-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223184237/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/14-year-old-girl-injured-in-leopard-attack-near-Junnar/articleshow/46361560.cms |url-status=live }} On March 5, 2015, a leopardess critically injured 4 people before being stabbed to death in a forest of Jorhat district.{{cite news |work=The Times of India |title=Leopard beaten to death in Jorhat |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Leopard-beaten-to-death-in-Jorhat/articleshow/46479152.cms |date=2015-03-07 |access-date=2015-03-07 |archive-date=2015-03-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318222358/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Leopard-beaten-to-death-in-Jorhat/articleshow/46479152.cms |url-status=live }}
• In the night of Friday the 4th of May, 2018, a leopard consumed a toddler in an unfenced part of a safari lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. The 3-year-old toddler, whose mother was a ranger at the park, had been following a nanny outdoors without the latter's knowledge when he was attacked.{{cite news |work=AFP |title=Toddler eaten by leopard in Uganda's national park |publisher=Times Live |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2018-05-07-toddler-eaten-by-leopard-in-ugandas-national-park/ |date=2018-05-07 |access-date=2018-05-09 |archive-date=2020-09-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926064852/https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2018-05-07-toddler-eaten-by-leopard-in-ugandas-national-park/ |url-status=dead }}
• In July of 2024, a leopard attacked two men at Air Force Base Hoedspruit of the South African air force, very near Kruger National Park. Both men survived without major injuries. The leopard was trapped and relocated 100 km away.[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjm9k242ngxo BBC: Leopard attacks men at South Africa air force base]

• Chinese leopard
• Human–wildlife conflict
• Tiger attack
• Anthrozoology
• List of large carnivores known to prey on humans

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{{Animal bites and stings}}

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Category:Felidae attacks

Category:Deaths due to leopard attacks