Don’t blame the leopard, he was there first in the evolution of leopard and human. In India, his territory has often been occupied by people and as a result the leopard in general has been (a) forced to live in the same place as people in India and (b) the leopard has become habituated to the presence of people and therefore shows little fear of people. Therefore the leopard will enter urban environments where there are lots of people and guess what….the people are scared of the leopard! They are the authors of their own predicament.
Then some smart-arse guy wants to show how brave he is by tackling the leopard whereupon the man gets scratched or bitten – injured but not killed. You can see in the video that the common leopard is often not that large and can be dealt with without having to kill him/her.
In this instance some people were hurt but not seriously. The best part of the story (if it is true) is that the cat was not shot but tranquillised. The authorities have realised that like all wildlife in India the leopard is endangered by human activity and needs to be protected.
Both the common leopard and the Bengal tiger have run out of space in India and are constantly under threat. Their future is precarious to be honest.
Another example of the leopard/human clashing in an urban environment.
Note: the video may go blank as it was possibly stolen by someone on YouTube. If that happens – sorry.
What can we expect when we take away the habitats?
In my mind, they have every right to move into our spaces since we destroyed theirs.
Move aside. They have claimed “imminent domain”.
Yes, if I had my way we’d sterilise people! Let the human population drop and allow wild creatures to re-inhabit their rightful territory in the world. They were there before us.