iStockphoto / Sourabh Bharti
A 12-year-old kid was sitting on the couch and playing on his phone at the front door of his family’s phone when a wild leopard walked in the front door right past him. The close encounter was caught on camera and the moment has since gone viral.
The situation very obviously could have taken a disastrous turn had the child not kept his cool, possibly even fatal given there have been 500 fatal leopard attacks in India between the years 2000 and 2023 with an additional 1,800 people injured in attacks over that span. Which, presumably, is part of the reason why this kid knew to keep his cool as the big cat sauntered into the house.
The video initially went viral on TikTok over the weekend and has since been picked up by American news agencies like ABC 7 who shared the video on their Wednesday broadcast:
My man deserves an award for keeping his composure. I’m pretty sure I could have kept it together as the leopard walked past but I would have been stumbling and falling over myself like a mad man to get out of that front door.
According to the reports, the leopard was a 5-year-old male. Once the child was able to safely get out of the home and close the door behind him, he was able to call authorities for help. They were then able to safely and humanely tranquilize the leopard and remove it from the household before anyone got severely injured.
Is it possible to survive a leopard attack?
It is, in fact, possible to survive a leopard attack. So there’s that.
The tips for surviving a leopard attack are similar to surviving an encounter with a mountain lion. Those tips include ‘make yourself seem as big as possible’ and ‘back away slowly’ but if the leopard takes a step toward you then it’s suggested you stop moving, according to WikiHow.
Then there’s the story of Carl Akeley, the man who invented taxidermy after he was attacked by an 80-pound leopard and killed it with his bare hands by shoving his hand down the leopards throat. The experience was so harrowing he was like ‘yup, I need a way to preserve this experience forever.’ Do NOT attempt that should you find yourself in a leopard attack situation, just follow the tips above.