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COUNTRY NOTEBOOK: M.Krishnan : The Leopard and his spots : The Sunday Statesman: 26 July 2015
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THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS

" EVERYONE knows that a Leopard in bush can be incredibly hard to spot. You know he is there, you saw him walk into that clump of lantana and he has not emerged, and so, as your highly-trained logic informs you, he must be there -- but your eyes cannot pick out the shape or colour or rosetted hide of a Leopard.

It is because of his spots that you cannot spot him, because the dots and rosettes serve to disrupt his contours; he is just a murky greyness, crouched low in the spiky, grey bushes, blending so confusingly with his surroundings. It is amazing in what small cover a Leopard can hide: even a patch of groundnut, barely a foot high, will do, for few other animals that size can crouch so flat and inconspicuously as a Leopard. Once I saw a big Leopard caught in the glare of a lorry's headlights on the bare roadside; he literally shrank to two-thirds of his size as he crouched and froze. However, I think the spots on a Leopard are of equally effective cryptic value when the animal is moving fast.

I have seen Leopards many times, both by day and by the light of automobile headlamps, from fairly close, say within 20 or 30 yards. So long as the animal was still, or moving at a walk, I have not had any difficulty in seeing the Leopard (to the extent exposed) clearly and in detail -- I am not referring to Leopards in cover, but to animals seen in open country. But even Leopards in the flat scrub, clear in every hair in a good light, become a grey blur when they break into quick action.

In particular I remember shot by a "jeep hunter" many years ago. It was very dark, and the jeep's headlights cut a swath of brilliant yellow through the night as we drove slowly along a ghat-road. This Leopard crossed the road about 20 yards ahead and the jeep was instantly stopped. He turned his head towards us, and his moustaches fanned out and bristled forward -- every spot and rosette was vividly clear in that revealing light, as he stood there. At the shot, he went straight into the air, as if propelled by some powerful, hidden spring. There were half a dozen of us in the jeep with our eyes riveted on the Leopard, but not one could say whether he landed to the left or right or which way he went. ......$
It was this experience that first made me realise the concealing value of its spots to a Leopard seeking rapid escape.

Since I have had three occasions to verify my theory, and I must say that I believe in it. It is no defect in my vision, which is responsible for this belief -- others, too loose sight of a fast moving Leopard easily. Of course, if the Leopard is in the open, however lightning-swift his jump, one can resume sight of his flight the moment he lands, and because of the brevity of the period during which he was not clearly seen, one has the illusion of continuous observation. Where he lands in obscuring cover, it is really difficult to say precisely when and where one lost sight of him.

The last time this happened was a year ago. A Leopard charged by a Gaur cow sprang into the air and vanished from sight. He has jumped into a large natural pit, overgrown with lantana -- this we knew because we knew there was this lantana-covered pit there -- but neither of the men who were with me could tell exactly where the Leopard has landed. Even the Gaur seemed considerably puzzled.

There was no question of our trying to ascertain, by inspection, in which part of the pit the Leopard was, or even that he was there. If you ask how I can be so certain that it was into the pit that he had gone, I can only say that I knew this by considering the available circumstantial evidence.
All of us clearly saw the Leopard as he jumped -- thereafter, to the mystification of three men and a truculent Gaur cow, he just vanished into thin air. Which was, after all, and even more telling demonstration of the concealing value of his spots than certain knowledge of his exact location inside the pit.! "

- M.Krishnan

This was first published on 17 April 1960 in The Sunday Statesman

# One photograph of two Leopards on move inside a jungle not reproduced here.
$ One sentence has not been reproduced here.