page_title: Leopard attack
section_title: Leopard predation on hominids
hierarchical_section_title: Leopard attack / Leopard predation on hominids
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Fresco van een panter die een man aanvalt, Sala della Sfinge, Domus aurea, Rome. English: Man being attacked by a panther. Sala della Sfinge (Sphinx Room), Domus aurea, Rome.
context_page_description: Leopard attacks are attacks inflicted upon humans, other leopards and other animals by the leopard. The frequency of leopard attacks on humans varies by geographical region and historical period. Despite the leopard's extensive range from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, attacks are regularly reported only in India and Nepal. Among the five "big cats", leopards are less likely to become man-eaters—only jaguars and snow leopards have a less fearsome reputation. However, leopards are established predators of non-human primates, sometimes preying on species as large as the western lowland gorilla. Other primates may make up 80% of the leopard's diet. While leopards generally avoid humans, they tolerate proximity to humans better than lions and tigers, and often come into conflict with humans when raiding livestock.
  Indian leopard attacks may have peaked during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coinciding with rapid urbanization. Attacks in India are still relatively common, and in some regions of the country leopards kill more humans than all other large carnivores combined.
context_section_description: In 1970, South African paleontologist C. K. Brain showed that a juvenile Paranthropus robustus individual, SK 54, had been killed by a leopard at Swartkrans in Gauteng, South Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago. The SK 54 cranium bears two holes in the back of the skull—holes that perfectly match the width and spacing of lower leopard canine teeth. The leopard appears to have dragged its kill into a tree to eat in seclusion, much like leopards do today. Numerous leopard fossils have been found at the site, suggesting that the felids were predators of early hominids. The revelation that these injuries were not the result of interpersonal aggression but were leopard-inflicted dealt a fatal blow to the then-popular killer ape theory. Another hominid fossil consisting of a 6-million-year-old Orrorin tugenensis femur (BAR 1003'00), recovered from the Tugen Hills in Kenya, preserves puncture damage tentatively identified as leopard bite marks. This fossil evidence, along with modern studies of primate–leopard interaction, has fueled speculation that leopard predation played a major role in primate evolution, particularly on cognitive development.
caption: Panther attacks a man. Roman fresco in the Sala della Sfinge, Domus Aurea, Rome, 65-68 A.D.
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