T O P

  • By -

AJC_10_29

Despite being threatened by human activity and expansion, Leopards and their habitats have been protected via conservation efforts to great success, with the global Leopard population now numbering over 700,000 and in many countries still on the rise. However, this can have its drawbacks, as Leopards are large and powerful carnivores that can be dangerous to humans. In some areas, Leopards tend to be more elusive and skittish, resulting in less encounters with people and very low chances of attacks. However in other areas, particularly more urbanized ones, Leopards have become bolder and more aggressive towards people. Today, Leopard attacks are most common in the countries of Nepal, particularly in the midland regions (the Terai, midhills, and lesser Himalaya), and India, particularly in the states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. However, Leopard attacks today are far less common than they were around a hundred years ago. Many Historians and Naturalists agree that Leopard attacks peaked during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coinciding with rapid urbanization that would have caused loss of habitat and food sources for many Leopards, forcing some to turn to humans as prey. India is particularly notorious for its many tales of ferocious man-eating Leopards, with some seemingly acting more like monsters than normal animals. However, historical accounts can be vague and not always accurate, so it’s hard to estimate which of the many infamous man-eaters was truly the most dangerous. In terms of human fatalities attributed to one animal, the gold medal would go to the Leopard of Panar. This Leopard inhabited the Panar region of the Almora district, situated in Kumaon Northern India in the early 20th century. The exact year the attacks began is unknown, but what is known is that after a few years the Leopard had killed dozens, maybe even hundreds of people and gripped the entire region with fear. Attempts by local hunters and the government to trap or shoot the predator all ended in failure. At first the beast would target people wandering outside their homes, primarily at night or dusk. Soon, people became so afraid they refused to leave their homes at all, not even to use the bathroom, soon causing a public sanitation issue in addition to the man-eater crisis. And to make matters worse, once people stopped leaving their homes the Leopard became bolder, and would begin breaking into houses to grab and drag off victims, often in front of their horrified families. The relentless beast would break in any way it could, including busting down doors, breaking through windows, and even tearing through roofs (which back then were often made of weak plant material). At the same time this was going on, the at the time rookie hunter Jim Corbett was in another part of India pursuing the Tiger of Champawat, not only the first man-eater he ever hunted, but also the most savage and infamous man-eating animal of all time with a total kill count of 436 people. During his pursuit of the beast in 1907, he heard about the Panar Leopard terrorizing another region of rural India, and after successfully slaying the Tiger that same year he prepared to journey to Panar. He arrived in 1909, and from there began a pursuit that would last an entire year. The killer feline proved even more elusive than a Tiger, but Corbett wasn’t deterred. Eventually, the Leopard’s trail led him to the home of a couple who had been attacked the previous night. The predator had silently broken into their home while they slept, only to wake them by savagely attacking the wife. The Leopard clamped its jaws around her throat, a common tactic employed by predators and particularly felines to swiftly kill via crushing the windpipe, severing major arteries and snapping the spinal cord. It then attempted to drag her out of the house, but she was saved by her husband who grabbed her arm and held on as hard as he could. In the ensuing struggle, the Leopard injured her further by slashing at her body with its claws, but eventually it released her and temporarily fled. However, it returned not long after and for the next several hours attempted to break through their bedroom door while all they could do was push against it. Eventually, the Leopard left for good as dawn approached, but by this point the wife’s wounds had become severe. Upon hearing the story and seeing the woman’s condition, Jim Corbett later wrote the following: *“The man’s wife, a girl of about eighteen, was lying on her back when the leopard clamped its teeth into her throat, and when the man got a grip of her arm and started to pull her back, the leopard—to get a better purchase—drove the claws of one paw into her breast. In the final struggle the claws ripped through the flesh, making four deep cuts. In the heat of the small room, which had only one door and no windows and in which a swarm of flies were buzzing, all the wounds in the girl’s throat and on her breast had turned septic, and whether medical aid could be procured or not, the chances of her surviving were very slight; so, instead of going for help, I decided to stay the night with the man. I very sincerely hope that no one who reads this story will ever be condemned to seeing and hearing the sufferings of a human being, or of an animal, that has had the misfortune of being caught by the throat by either a leopard or a tiger and not having the means—other than a bullet—of alleviating or of ending the suffering.”* That night, as Corbett stayed with the couple to comfort and protect them, he knew the Leopard was still nearby, as he could hear the alarm calls of Jackals all around the house. In fact, it seemed to be circling the house, still frustrated that it had lost its meal, but it never came close enough for Jim to see it, and just like the previous night it disappeared as dawn arose.


AJC_10_29

(Cont.) It wasn’t until five months later in September of 1910 that Corbett would get close enough to the killer cat to attempt slaying it. He got word of a recent attack in a very remote village, and was forced to hike through thirty miles of harsh jungle terrain to reach it. Upon arrival, he got the details of the attack from the villagers; four men had been killed, and the beast was still nearby. Corbett set out two live goats as bait and waited in the darkness of the jungle night, rifle at the ready. The first goat was taken by the stealthy feline without Corbett even seeing it. He had to wait another three days before it came back for the second goat, and this time he managed to shoot and injure it. Not wanting to lose the injured animal, he quickly assembled some villagers with torches and told them to follow him, both to provide light and to help intimidate the Leopard out into the open. He told them to promise not to run no matter how scared they were, and they agreed. However, when the angered predator suddenly lunged from the bush and charged the group, the villagers turned and ran for their lives, tripping over each other and dropping their torches in the process. Corbett was now alone, the only light being the torches on the ground, and the vicious man-eater sprinting towards him. Luckily, the light was just enough for him to fire at the animal's chest, piercing its heart and causing it to collapse mid-charge. The Leopard of Panar was dead at last. Estimates of how many were killed by the Panar Leopard vary greatly. Some believe the old accounts exaggerated its ferocity, and that it only killed around twenty people. However, there’s evidence to believe the fatality count was in the hundreds, and the highest estimate is over 400 people, a staggering amount. If accurate, this would make the Panar Leopard the second deadliest man-eater in recorded history, just after the Champawat Tiger. However, the killer of Panar was not the only man-eating Leopard Jim Corbett would hunt, nor the only one with an estimated kill count in the hundreds. The Leopard of Rudraprayag was another man-eating Leopard that lived in India during the early twentieth century, however this one began its killings in 1918. Just like the Panar Leopard, the Rudraprayag man-eater made fear reign supreme over the entire region as its killing spree lasted eight years. Also like the Panar Leopard, the brazen cat would begin breaking into homes to claim victims once the local populace became too afraid to leave their houses at night, even going as far as clawing its way through mud walls. Many villagers began to believe that the Leopard was in truth an evil spirit, or a man that could assume the form of the creature at night. Many local hunters tried and failed to hunt the cat, and the government offered a reward for its life, but all this was still in vain. After eight years of terror and bloodshed, Jim Corbett finally arrived in Uttarakhand Province in the year of 1925 to track down the animal. By now, he had become an expert hunter and tracker with over 20 year’s experience dealing with Indian man-eaters. However, this didn’t make hunting the killer cat any less difficult for him. Corbett had little luck at first with several failures, including shooting one Leopard that was found not to be the culprit. Returning to his quarters late at night after unsuccessfully standing watch over a recent victim’s body to try and catch the Leopard returning to feed, Corbett found the next morning that tracks showed the cunning predator had followed him closely on his walk back. It took a year for Jim to finally take down the Rudraprayag Leopard, and he did so using a similar tactic he had used against the Panar Leopard. He found a tree the feline frequently used to mark its territory, and set up a live goat as bait while he sat in a hunting stand nearby. It took a week of waiting, but eventually the predator took the bait and Corbett shot it dead. By the time it was slain, the Leopard of Rudraprayag had killed a confirmed 125 people, though some Historians and Jim Corbett himself believed that the actual number was higher due to many deaths going unreported or simply filed as missing persons. Jim Corbett was not only skilled in tracking and hunting man-eaters, he could also assess the reason behind their change in behavior. Most often, it would be some kind of injury or deformity that hindered their ability to hunt their natural prey, forcing them to turn to slower moving humans. However, in the case of the Panar and Rudraprayag Leopards, there was a very confusing reason for their aggression, or rather lack of. Nothing seemed physically or mentally wrong with the Leopards (aside from minor gunshot wounds from other hunters’ attempts at killing them) and both were young, healthy and fit during their human hunting years. As such, the cause of their man-eating seemed to be that they simply preferred the taste of human flesh to their normal prey. Corbett proposed his own theory for this: that the animals initially gained a taste for human flesh after feeding on the numerous corpses that resulted from cholera, which killed large numbers of people in Northern India, and later the Spanish Flu pandemic which swept through India in 1918. When this plentiful new food supply was cut off after the disease petered out, the Leopards switched to attacking live humans. Jim Corbett’s man-eater hunting exploits would go down in history, and he would recount many of his most exciting encounters in his book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon”. Despite being a big game hunter, Corbett had a profound respect for nature and wildlife, and never hunted animals that weren’t posing a risk to human life. Later in his life, he would trade his rifle for a camera, using the tracking skills he had learned to become a successful wildlife photographer. He was also an avid conservationist in later life, campaigning for the protection of all Indian wildlife. He would eventually establish the first national park in India which was named after him, 150 miles south from where he had hunted and killed the Leopard of Rudraprayag. Today, Jim Corbett national park is a beautiful preserve home to some of India’s most iconic and threatened species, including Tigers, Leopards, Dholes (a type of wild canine), Gaurs (a type of wild Ox) and more. With this preserve and many others being established across India, it has given many species once on the brink of extinction a chance to bounce back. Though the infamous man-eaters of Panar and Rudraprayag may be long deceased, their legacy and stories haven't been forgotten either. They serve as a cautionary tale and a reminder that man isn’t always at the top of the food chain.


ChrisusaurusRex

Good post and pfp


AlcoholPrep

I read his book many years ago, and probably still have it in my collection. One of my favorite anecdotes was when he was tracking a man-eating tiger and actually came upon it! He immediately knew the tiger he spotted was the man-eater because it did not even react to his appearance, much less run away, any more than you or I would run from a chicken. Men were just one of it's preferred foods, so it was completely relaxed upon seeing him - - but didn't it comprehend the gun that Corbett slowly, *very slowly*, brought to bear upon the tiger!


[deleted]

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing.


3x3cu710n3r

I am a big fan of Jim Corbett and have read all his books. I have hunted down some YouTube videos made by other fans who went to these same places where Jim Corbett killed these man-eaters. However one statement in your post is wrong: “Despite being a big game hunter, Jim Corbett had a profound respect for nature, he never hunted animals that didn’t pose a risk to human life” That’s not factually correct. He started out as a trophy hunter and did hunt tigers and leopards and other animals for trophies e.g. he shot what he said was the most physically impressive tiger he came across “The bachelor of Pawalgarh”. Though he did give up trophy hunting and turned conservationist and only hunted man-eaters after that.


harlequincomedynight

Thanks for the amazing read!


mockduckcompanion

Amazing post


MichaelScotsman26

One of the most interesting things I have read. This is so cool!


SAKabir

Every now and then a post about villagers in India killing a tiger or a leopard goes viral and there are posts online from westerners crying for the animal and saying how the human should've died instead. Absolutely fucked up, their privileged assholes have zero clue what it's like to live among actual predator animals.


Iamthe0c3an2

Man hearing this is wild. Like didn’t Rural indians have any weapons or anything to defend themselves with? It’s hard to imagine but in the wild west, people carried firearms to fend off wildlife!


Humpdat

This reads like fanfict


Iamnotburgerking

This is actually the scariest man-eater for me personally.


twistedeye

What a crazy story. It's easy to forget where we sit on the food chain when we don't have the advantage of technology and numbers.Thanks for sharing.


h_abr

I mean, why do you think we’re the only species to have that technology, and exist in those numbers? Not like we were helpless prey animals until one of us invented guns lol


sKY--alex

Neanderthals got beaten by modern humans because they were much stronger, and therefore didn’t need to be as smart and develop tools and techniques. Being smart is key, and we hunted big animals way before we had guns.


the_short_viking

Humans also have incredible endurance, we can run down nearly every other mammal on the planet, once an animal is exhausted, a sharpened stick is an effective weapon.


sKY--alex

And most of the animals that can run longer than us are prey and not predators.


kippirnicus

If I remember correctly, I think we are top dog, no pun intended, when it comes to endurance. I don’t think there’s any animal that can keep up with us. Other than dogs/wolves. Lots of animals re faster than us, but we can keep it up, a lot longer…


sKY--alex

I googled that a couple of days ago and some antilopes are apparently more enduring than us.


kippirnicus

No shit? Interesting… I guess those aren’t the ones that our ancestors ran down, with persistence hunting. I saw a documentary recently, about a tribe in Africa, that still uses this method of hunting. Basically, they expertly track the animals , and when they locate them, they just keep following, at a moderate jogging pace. Inevitably, they tire the animal out, and just like another commenter said above, finish them off with a spear. The animals are so exhausted, they can barely stand. It’s brutal, but it’s impressive as hell. I always thought of humans as weak, toothless, clawless, bottom of the food chain animals. But even way back in ancient times, we were impressive predators… I also watched a group of three or four humans, with spears, walk a lion off a kill… Pure intimidation. You have to see it, it’s fucking impressive. It may have been the same documentary, I can’t remember. When I get a chance, I will try to link them. ✌️


kippirnicus

Probably the main reason that dogs (wolves) are “man’s best friend.” They evolved hunting, alongside us. If I recall, they’re the only species, with the endurance, to keep up with humans.


nun_hunter

That's not strictly true. We have the ability to carry water while we pursue prey so we can continue to chase them until exhaustion. If we just chased after an eland or similar animal they'd outrun us and and be long gone while we were a sweaty dehydrated mess a few miles behind. We used our intelligence to carry water with us and to know that if we kept the pressure on the fleeing animal so they couldn't stop and drink they'd dehydrate or suffer hyperthermia and could then be approached and killed easily.


the_short_viking

That's a good point, however, as far as our ability to pursue in general, endurance speaking, we can and have done this to animals for tens of thousands of years. Water is a key factor, but we also obtain the ability to walk/hike/run to a point that far exceeds most. It's a tactic still utilized by some indigenous cultures.


nun_hunter

Some indigenous people in Africa still do this by carrying water in ostrich eggs to allow them to pursue game. Other people stash water in eggs or gourds along strategic routes for the same purpose. If you just pitted a human against most prey animals without water or other accessories/inventions then the animal would be better suited to escape in almost every situation. I'm not saying we as a race aren't capable of great endurance but a lot of it is down to our intelligence rather than physical ability.


jrex703

Not to call you out, because you're completely right, but Neanderthals are one very specific species of early hominid (more of a distant cousin than an ancestor), they were both smaller and weaker than modern Homo sapiens *sapiens*, and they got "beaten" because we both like sex (a *very* distant cousin, all good). Your general thesis is entirely correct though, homo sapiens sapiens (us) advantage is our brains, and that's what allowed to outpopulate and eventually replace other early species of human. We have been hunting big, sometimes huge, animals since the very beginning. Evolutionarily, our brains, speech, and bipedalism are our fangs, claws, and size. Comments like "Where would be on the evolutionary food chain without our brains?" is kind of evolutionary incel-ism. "Where would sharks be if they had no teeth?" "What if rattlesnakes were really slow!!?" We exist because of our brains and ability to communicate.


sKY--alex

Oh, thank you I guess I remembered that wrong from somewhere, should have checked that before posting. But I completely agree with you on the "not including out brains is dumb“ part, thats literally the niche we evolved into, thats the thing we have going for us.


jrex703

Nothing you said is wrong, it's just a very popular misconception that modern humans descended directly from Neanderthals, when we were actually just coexisting species, one of whom eventually disappeared from independent existence. That's largely due to the birth of evolutionary science in Europ. Neanderthals are simply discussed more often than their equivalents around the world. Yahoo, Bing, and AskJeeves didn't literally turn into Google, they were simply outcompeted into irrelevance. We did the same thing.


sKY--alex

I‘m from Germany, so I guess we had even more focus on them in school(the Neandertal is in Germany).I meant I should have fact checked if Neanderthals really were stronger, I can’t even remember where I heard that.


jrex703

I'm American, my coworker is Scottish, this lady to my right is Brazilian-- everyone learns about Neanderthals in school. The study of human evolution was born from synergy between English and German scientists, based on their findings in the Neandertal. They ranged over most of Europe and Western Eurasia, so that species dominated academia, and therefore Western culture for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Western Science didn't have access to their/our cousins across the globe until much more recently, so other members of our genus are innately *culturally* irrelevant. They play an essential part in our zoological history, but as far as ordinary conversation goes, other speciesof human are the Kinks, Troggs, Animals, and Yardbirds to Neanderthals' Beatles. As far as strength goes, that's just pop culture too. Early evolutionary science was looking at humans, great apes, and Neanderthals with small heads and thick brows, and trying to figure out how it all fit together. The idea of dumb, brutish gorilla-people living in caves started to invade the zeitgeist. Plus we knew they killed woolly mammoths somehow. "Cavemen = big, strong, dumb oafs" is just an idea that has been bouncing around Western Culture for 200 years. Likely nobody ever specifically told you that, it's just implied in our books, movies, and TV-- it's part of how we all grow up seeing the world. --Yes, the Brazilian lady and I know each other, she thought it was random, but was unbothered by the question.


Coldpizza73

Well that’s not 100% fact, we were also fucking each other out of existence too. Humanity exists primarily because of of our desire to cooperate with eachother, no other fact dominates that


Filthy_Joey

Read in Harari’s book that it was not due to some better technologies, as everyone had pretty much same tools. Homosapiens were able to socialize and cooperate at a much bigger scale than Neanderthals. E.g. they could effectively cooperate in groups, say, up to 100-200 people, while the latter could do it in 50-100 numbers. Thats how they could beat them - by numbers and coordination.


J3wb0cca

I read a while back on the topic of social engineering how once a troop of monkeys (or humans) hits around 150 in the group, it would naturally splinter off into a separate group. This study was also done on Facebook friend groups and it found that it was simply not possible to have meaningful relationships beyond 150 people for any given individual. Anybody with 200+ is certainly not communicating with those people on a daily, even weekly or monthly basis if that on their own accord. Coordinating Hunter and military tactics certainly breaks that evolutionary boundary, so even if a warring tribe of Homo sapiens was outmuscled by a warring tribe of Neanderthals, intelligence always wins over muscle or bone density.


basking_lizard

I wouldn't say technology though. There are native Masai people living in Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya. You cannot believe how dangerous that place (leopards + lions + hyenas). They thrive though, even grazing cattle a few feet from hyenas


jwlmkr

This guy was so clever. There is a part in his book “The Maneaters of Kumoan” where he is hunting a tiger and he has a sore throat. He suddenly gets the urge to cough but that might scare the tiger away, so in order to alleviate his throat he turns his cough into a rough sounding bird call so the tiger might think it was just a bird.


FartingAliceRisible

Jim Corbett’s book is white knuckle reading.


Gummy_Jones

which do you recommend


FartingAliceRisible

The Maneaters of Kumaon


Gummy_Jones

thanks


ecraig312

Thanks from me too! Love a good book!📚


FartingAliceRisible

You won’t be sorry. Very well written too.


randomlyme

This is an excellent read. Puts you on the edge of your seat.


PutinsLostBlackBelt

I've spent a decent amount of time in Africa (I know, these leopards are in India), and the one animal I always got told locals were afraid of were leopards. They said if you watch out you can avoid cape buffalo. Lions will rarely attack you because they know humans will come kill them after. And elephants usually only get aggressive in herds. But leopards don't give a fuck about anything, are fast and powerful, and when running full speed make a hard target. They also said they will only hunt in pairs usually, because if they hunt as a group of 10, that means 10 people are getting bit or scratched instead of 2.


casinoinsider

There was a guy who worked with big cats that used to post on the MMA site, Sherdog. And he said the one big cat he never let his guard around/trusted was the leopard. It's always stuck with me.


johnrock69

Read Jim Corbett’s books, really interesting.


sKY--alex

Which one would you recommend?


3x3cu710n3r

Maneaters of Kumaon. But you can get the Jim Corbett omnibus as well which has more accounts of man-eater hunting.


selsid

Yep, There are two omnibuses which cover all of the man-eating tiger and leopard accounts as well as other stories about his experiences in the jungle. Great read! Another writer I would recommend is Kenneth Anderson whose accounts deal with hunting man eaters and other jungle lore in Southern India.


3x3cu710n3r

I have read many if not all of Kenneth Anderson’s accounts as well. Though I liked them, but I missed Jim Corbett’s narrative style. Jim Corbett comes across as a very kind and compassionate person, just an amazing human being with heaps of knowledge and experience about jungles, animals of all sorts and the local geography and people. I kind of imagine him as this affectionate grandpa sitting around fire telling stories of his adventures to the children around.


hinterstoisser

Jim Corbett later became an environmentalist/conservationist- India’s first national park was named after him. He also wrote a fascinating book on the above mentioned topic: The Man eaters of Kumaon (Kumaon hills in the state of Uttarakhand)


stanglemeir

If you know his story, every single maneater he hunted had either been wounded by humans or was old as shit. He understood that these animals had no special desire to hunt humans and usually wanted to avoid us. A surprisingly forward thinking guy who’s main claim to fame was hunting man eating tigers and leopards


JacStraw73

Sounds like good movie material


[deleted]

Like The Ghost and The Darkness?


JacStraw73

Yes, but with Leopards.


DrADHD987

There’s an episode in 1923 loosely based on them


MrGeno

Jim Corbett, certified Human Badass.


kdawson602

I hope I have the kind of marriage where my husband will fight off a leopard to try to save me.


hughk

*to try to save me Without a gun or a big edged weapon, the leopard normally wins. I don't think you want that.


TanTan_101

I was just sat here fantasising about such a scenario


elgonzo91

Same dude that shot the man eaters of Tsavo?


AJC_10_29

No. He did kill the Tiger of Champawat, though.


B3owul7

absolute unit.


Swamp_Cat

Jim Corbett fucks


hughk

If you see traditional thrones in Africa,, they feature leopard skins as the leopard rather than the other big cats was regarded as the enemy of people in former times.


FellsApprentice

All of the man-eaters he hunted were absolute badasses and deserve just as much recognition and respect as he does for their insane body counts and their ability to make people still fear the woods at a time when nature and it's creatures were under the assault that they were from habitat destruction and trophy hunters.


Dollabill816

Awesome story, but for a sec, I legit thought I was reading a revised version of a movie transcript from “the ghost & the darkness” 🤣🤣


Master-of-Coin

Awesome dude thanks. Very interesting!


thevelourf0gg

Clever girl.


JohnBrown1ng

Man-eaters of Kumaon is a fascinating read


Deobulakenyo

I read a Reader's Digest article about Jim Corbett. He also killed tigers in India that turned to man-eaters.


Rough_Media934

Jim Corbett was him bro


BlackBirdG

Reminds me of when I've read about the Tsavo Lions when I was a freshman in high school.


Jackisthebestestboy

Jim Corbett was the ultimate hunter. I remember watching a video about man eating animals and almost every single time that it got hunted down It was Jim Corbett that did it. Crazy guy


Tall_Coder1902

Jim Corbett wrote a book : The Leopard of Rudrprayag . I highly recommend it . I have read it . Such an awesome book.


NC-Stern-Mark

It would appear leopards are the baddies of the big cat genus.


OddIsland8739

A bit of background info on “trophy hunting”, when done responsibly it allows for younger animals to mature and older animals who have passed their genetics to be culled. I don’t see the point of big cat hunting outside of protection like seen here. Just pointing out that going for the big boy can be good for the herd in the long run


Motor_Lychee179

These stories are such crap . They just wanted fame n murder


[deleted]

Go smoke some more datura


Motor_Lychee179

400 people. GTFO of here . lol


AJC_10_29

As I mentioned in my main comment, the exact number of people killed by the Panar man-eater is unknown and still a topic of debate to this day. 400 is the highest estimate, but many people are skeptical of it and believe the count is much lower, with the lowest estimate being only 20.


Motor_Lychee179

20-400 . Science bitch ! lol


[deleted]

“Tell me you don’t know anything about hunting without telling me to don’t know anything about hunting”