Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Animal behavior; Hunting
The habits of the leopard are invariably the same, it prowls stealthily
about sunset and throughout the night in search of prey. It seizes by
the throat and clings with tenacious claws to the animal's neck, until
it succeeds either in breaking the spine, or in strangling its victim,
should the bone resist its strength. When the animal is dead, the
leopard never attacks the hind-quarters first, according to the custom
of the tiger, but it tears the belly open, and drags out all the
viscera, making its first meal upon the heart, lungs, liver, and the
inside generally. It then retreats to some neighbouring hiding-place,
and, if undisturbed, it will return to its prey a little after sundown
on the following day.
It is far more difficult to circumvent a leopard than a tiger; the
latter seldom or never looks upwards to the trees, therefore it does not
perceive the hidden danger when the hunter is watching from his elevated
post; but the leopard approaches its kill in the most wary and cautious
manner, crouching occasionally, and examining every yard of the ground
before it, at the same time scanning the overhanging boughs, which it so
frequently seeks as a place of refuge. Upon many occasions, when the
disappointed watcher imagines that the leopard has forsaken its kill,
and that his patience will be unrewarded, the animal may be closely
scanning him from the dense bush, under cover of which it was
noiselessly approaching. In such a case the leopard would retreat as
silently as it had advanced, and the watcher would return home from a
fruitless vigil, under the impression that the leopard had never been
within a mile of his position. One of the cleverest birds in creation is
the ordinary crow of all tropical countries, which lives well by the
exercise of its wits; nothing escapes the observation of this bird, and
it is the first to discover the body of any animal that may have been
killed. Should one or more of these birds be perched in the trees after
sunset, near the carcase of an animal, and should it utter a "caw," when
at that late hour it should have gone to roost, you may be assured that
it has espied an approaching leopard, although it may be invisible to
your own sight. The watcher should be careful not to move, but to
redouble his vigilance in keeping a bright look-out, as the leopard will
be equally upon its guard should it hear the cry of the warning crow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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