A-Z Blog Challenge: L is for Leopard

The leopard is one of the most beautiful of the big cats and I recently watched a documentary where they were studying the way in which leopards and people co-exist in India. Although there is occasional conflict for the most part people accept that at night leopards are in their villages and on the outskirts of the cities and apart from taking sensible precautions - like having their children sleep between both parents if they sleep outside (common practice due to the heat) and keeping dogs as an early warning sign to alert them if a leopard gets too close - they are happy to live and let live. They also believe that leopards do a service in preying on the stray dogs which are found scavenging everywhere.

This video shows how far some villagers will go to help a leopard in trouble. A young leopard found itself trapped in a deep well and together with wildlife officers and a lot of ingenuity the villagers managed to free it. Touching, isn't it.