Yikes! There’s a leopard on my taxi – VIDEO
Only in Africa will you find a lion on your stoep next to your braai, a cheetah casually strolling into a safari lodge in Blyde River Canyon and a hippo paying regular visits to a Limpopo high school. Then there is the gutsy leopard that attempted to “take down” a minibus taxi… ALSO READ: WATCH: Hippo […]
Only in Africa will you find a lion on your stoep next to your braai, a cheetah casually strolling into a safari lodge in Blyde River Canyon and a hippo paying regular visits to a Limpopo high school.
Then there is the gutsy leopard that attempted to “take down” a minibus taxi…
ALSO READ: WATCH: Hippo roams around school premises in Limpopo
THE CLAWS ARE OUT: LEOPARD ATTACKS MINIBUS TAXI
A clip of the spotted big cat scaling a high fence in hot pursuit of a moving minibus taxi and then going straight for the “jugular” by jumping on to the taxi, has racked up 26 million views on TikTok, according to Briefly News.
THE FEELING IS MUTUAL
Let’s be honest. I totally get the leopard’s aggression towards the minibus taxi. I really do. South Africans’ bottled up anger and frustration caused by taxi drivers’ reckless disregard for others on the road, are no joke.
TikTok user ordinarilyjokes actually sums it up perfectly:
“That looked personal.”
WATCH: VIRAL CLIP OF LEOPARD ‘CATCHING’ A TAXI
@qinhan111
LEOPARDS IN MUMBAI?
The exact location where the lightning fast clash of muscle and metal took place, is unknown, but judging by the figurine on the oncoming taxi’s dashboard, it could well be in India and not Africa.
According to India Times, the 40 leopards located in Mumbai’s Aarey and Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) have always co-existed peacefully with humans.
These spotted big cats are often referred to as “urban leopards” as they actually live in a forest that is within a metropolis.
Sadly, infrastructure projects are increasingly cutting through their habitat and the ever-increasing population have turned the situation into one that could lead to potential human-leopard conflict.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Cheetah struts into safari lodge near Kruger National Park
BIG CATS IN BIG CITIES
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, the primary threat to the leopard magnificent creature is human activity.
Habitat fragmentation, reduced prey base, and human-wildlife conflict have greatly reduced this species’ population throughout most of their range. Although they are widely distributed across Africa and Asia, due to habitat fragmentation and loss, their range has reduced by 31% worldwide in the past three generations (about 22 years).
The commercialised bushmeat trade has caused a collapse of prey populations across large parts of savanna Africa — estimated an average of 59% decline in prey populations across 78 protected areas.
ALSO READ: Death of Sheba: It’s dead-easy to own a pet tiger in SA…
Apart from urban areas and rural settlements encroaching on their habitat, these big cats have long been hunted for their unique fur — used to make coats and ceremonial robes — as well as for their claws, whiskers, and tails, which are popular for customary uses and clothing.