SANParks.org Forums

Do you have a link to the video so I can see it only if you have it nearby! I love leopards and everything they do I am fascinated with.

seems his website is gone, seems the complaints to him by forum members did their work.

nicole he mentioned that he climed on top of his car to take the pics(on his website) and this would have given bad impression bout krugers rules of sataying in your vehicle at all times.

If you find the other thead you'll se how many forumites mentioned that they emailed/ tried tocontact him, i myself tried, but no response

That is so bad. I always get frustrated with those who break the rules. When we were in Kruger in July we came across a Leopard sighting and what a crowd! It was like rush hour on the n1. So this one guy decided he couldn't see a thing leaned over and asked what it was. Politely we told him that it was leopard and tried to show him where.

Do you know that HE GOT OUT OF HIS CAR TO GET A BETTER VIEW! When we expressed our outrage and concern for his well being (we thought maybe the guy really didn't know that cats catch prey!) He laughed and said : "Chill it is only a leopard he is more scared of me!" Can you believe that! We tried to get his number plate but alas it was so dust covered we couldn't read it.

I definitely get the idea that people completely under rate a leopard. To me they are more dangerous than any other cats (just my opinion). I have read some scary things on Leopard attacks so I am so weary of these stunning animals.

Thanks for the tip on this guy. I am so sad to hear it because I admired the camera work - I feel cheated!

"It is only a leopard".

That could very well have been part of the "most famous last words" book's entries.

I wonder if this oke actually knows what exactly a leopard can do to a person with quite relative ease in less the amount of time you could get to say the word "leopard"?

He would have eaten those words when that "only a leopard" grabbed hold of his skull with the front paws, ripped his scalp from his head and let it hang over his eyes like what Peter Capstick so brilliantly describes as a "wet hairy beret", whilst at the same time gorge out his bowels with those razor sharp dew claws.

The best thing at that stage of the ball game is to wish that the leopard would just bloody well finish you off!

The best is yet to come.

The infection and septicaemia you get from the rotten flesh doing a awe inspiring job in your blood stream after the medical staff have stitched your sorry backside back together again with a 100 or so stitches is something that would make the devil himself hurl and run away.

You are so right, Nicole. People underestimate leopards, too often.

One case in Kruger described in quite some detail how a leopard had taken on 7 adult men, in the South Western part of Kruger, (2 brothers on bicycles returning home from work and then 5 workers in a bakkie straight afterwards just to show that it is not bored with life), re-arranging their profiles in such gory detail that Alfred Hitchcock himself would wash down his whiskey and swipe the perspiration from his forehead when he read about it.

This happened in double quick time and with such precision that very few of the 7 men had even realized what the heck had happened by the time the leopard was stabbed to death by the bakkie driver with a screw driver.

Needless to say the one brother on the bicycle lost half his face together with his ability to see.

Capstick also wrote about a professional hunter whom got chopped into cat chow by "the dappled one". The same plane which flew the injured man out of the hunting concession, carried another pro in to continue the hunting expedition in the other's absence and to take care of the wounded leopard. The plane might as well have waited...

Only after pro number 3 got summoned was the leopard taken care of.

To me it is a toss up between buffalo and leopard as the numero uno most dangerous animal. But one thing I can tell you is that if a leopard has your number, boy will he make it count. He is a safe bet in making sure that he will make his effort on you a worthwhile one.

I recently bought Bruce Bryden: a Game Ranger remembers ( great read ) and he has some amazing stories but the one that fascinates me the most are the tales of leopards taking out people.

In the one case he broke a game ranger’s neck in a matter of seconds! Just because the guy had the same routine every night drive. Stop for drinks and he would walk a little way off to smoke. as he bent down WAM!! that was it Neck broken. poor guy.

And they say you are lucky if that happens because the alternative is the goriest wounds. Like you, say disembowelment!
You have to respect this cat!
They are awesome!

Ja, we have discussed that incident during which Charles was killed a few times on this forum. It happened on the Matjulu bridge as Charles, a guide, took people out on a night drive.

I was told by KNPSM, that evidence on the scene showed that the leopard had leaped vertically close to 4m high to grab hold of Charles and in the action of jerking him backwards, broke his neck.

And that was a leap by a then reported sick leopard.

Was that incident not also mentioned by Bruce in his book?

I agree...I am always skittish when next to a buffalo's sighting.

Getting back to the leopards and them doing a shredding job of it.

Can't rememebr whether it was Capstick as well or one of the other pro's but I remember reading, and finding it quite interesting, the difference in attacks when they mean to do you grievous bodily harm, and when they intend to make a meal of you.

When a leopard takes prey it almost always does if from behind if it can, a swift bite behind the head, basically where the head and the neck joins. Can see the same modus operandi on some of the sj\kulls found at places like Sterkfontein. When one reads Corbett's many books on his taking on man-eating leopard and tigers in India you read exactly the same. You're dead without you knowing it.

HOWEVER, when he's hurt, and ticked off with you, and wanna hurt you, he has a different modus operandi.

He's gonna hurt you, and he's gonna let you know that it's him giving you that tummy tack and face-lift (or rather face-down as he pulls your scalp down over your eyes.) As WTM so aptly describes, while he's working on your scalp with the forelegs the back legs are doing their best to simulate a car getting stuck in the mud, with the driver still wanting to drive out - them wheels just keep spinning... Well, his hind legs just keep spinning - only it ain't mud, it's your blood and last meal...

But he comes from the front, straight at you, letting you know that you're gonna get it. And more often than not you're not killed, your stitch-docter must basically use a sewing-machine to get you back together, and for a long while you actually wish you were dead.

Hi,

That croc attack by leopard was at that sighting and confirmed with photographer, Hal Brindley. It was september 2001 (think then), at Shilolweni dam, near T'kwane. Same time as world summit for sust dev. There were 3 cars on loc..

Cheers

wj

Thanks so much for the wealth of information. These are certainly amazing animals. I wish I could have been 1 of the cars at Shilolweni!:) The sighting of a lifetime.