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| Mama leopard watching over cubs. |
An Indian story runs that a dead sheep was hung up near a sentry's box, and in a short time it was missing. On the ground directly beneath where the sheep had hung were footprints of a leopard, and yet the soldier on guard had not heard a sound. After that he kept a better watch, and another sheep was hung up. Suddenly, with a roar, up sprang a leopard, from nowhere it seemed, and seizing the sheep it made off, after viciously laying about it with its paws, wounding several natives, and leaving the soldier half dead.
Leopards do not hesitate to attack in broad daylight, and will carry small animals off from under their keeper's very nose. On one occasion a leopard sprang into the middle of a camp at midnight, and dragged off a pair of wolf-hounds that were fastened together. After carrying them some hundred yards or so, it was forced to drop its prey. One dog was dead, with its skull smashed in, and the other was so badly injured that it had to be shot.
Leopards have a fondness for eating the flesh of dogs, and resort to many clever tricks to gratify their taste.
The pariah dogs, which swarm about every Indian village, on hearing the leopard growling, will rush toward the spot with loud barkings. The leopard lets them approach, and then suddenly springs out on the nearest dog and bounds off with it.
Another clever device they resort to is in catching antelopes. A great failing of all the antelope tribe is curiosity. This the leopard well knows, so he hides in a small clump of grass near a herd of the swift-footed animals, and slowly moves his body back and forth so as to make the grass wave. This attracts the attention of the antelopes, who come forward to see what it is, their curiosity leading them to swift death.
If a leopard is chased by dogs it will take to a tree. In fact a large part of its life is passed off the ground, preying upon the birds and monkeys that live in the upper branches. Leopards are seldom or never found in forests where there is no undergrowth. They climb a tree and lie out on the larger limbs, and from there leap upon anything that passes below.
One of the most wonderful stories of a leopard comes from India. A native woman, who was working among the corn, had left her baby asleep beneath a large tree. When she had finished her work she went to get her child and found that it had vanished. On the ground round about were the footprints of a large leopard. She followed these up and found that they led to a jungle near by. After a long search she came to a sheltered rock, under which she found her baby sound asleep among three leopard cubs, which were playing together. The woman seized her child and rushed off, but she had not gone far when she heard something bounding after her. In her terror she rushed for an open space where there was a small fire left by some wood-choppers. She threw some leaves on it so that it blazed up ; at the same instant the leopard appeared. It stopped, looked at the fire, and lowered its eyes. At last it turned tail and went off. The woman waited until help came from a village hunter, who had seen the smoke of the fire rising above the trees. It is impossible to say why the leopard had not killed the child, but the fact remains that it was none the worse for its adventure.
Considering the fact that the child had been carried some distance by the leopard shows that it must have been handled as carefully as if it had been one of her own cubs.
The leopard is regarded everywhere as a pest, and in India especially where it is troublesome. Many people are of the opinion that a large part of the black deeds charged to the tiger are really the work of the sly, cunning leopard.
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| The wary leopard cautiously drinks from a nearby stream. |
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