“I was looking after my camels when a leopard attacked me. I had to dodge its paws when it pounced at me before it attacked me again from behind and bit the back of my neck while pinning me to the ground. After a brief struggle I had turned over and poked its loin hard, forcing it to jump up and run into the woods” said the herder Mohamed Saeed.
Mohamed’s wounds were bleeding profusely when he arrived at a hospital in Hargeisa where doctors treated him.
When asked why he was sure that it was a leopard that had attacked him since no leopards had been sighted in the area for a long time, Mohamed told local TV station Saab TV “I have been living in the countryside for a long time and know what a cheetah, a jackal, and a hyena look like. If people think that the animal that attacked me is not a leopard, (they should remember that) attacks by leopards have been reported near Ballaadh Mountain on the outskirts of Gabiley. A leopard attacked several people there, and was shot dead (by locals). Also, a leopard recently attacked two more people at Geed Deeble.”
© Puntland Post, 2020