‘Leopard boy’ survives attack

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Cape Town - One moment, Justin Denny’s 6-year-old son Kellan was playing with his brother on a 4m wall, his parents enjoying lunch close by, and the next, the distraught father was chasing after a leopard that had his son between its jaws. The family were spending time at the N’tsiri Private Nature Reserve, near the Kruger National Park, as they did on many occasions. But last week’s visit was disrupted by a wild cat that bit Kellan on the neck, arm and shoulders. Denny said his son was playing with his 8-year-old brother, Kai, when the leopard leapt at the boy and dragged him for about 30m. “He was running on the wall and had done about six or seven laps while we were having lunch… and then he wanted to go back and do another lap.

“When he went back to the wall, that is when the leopard attacked.”

Without thinking, the frightened father ran after the leopard screaming and shouting “no, no, no this can’t be happening”.

“By the grace of God, it dropped him. Then I picked him up and rushed him back to the rondavel and attended to his injuries. Then a neighbour arrived with his wife who is a nurse.”

Denny said he then called the reserve’s management, and they sent a doctor to assess his son before he was sent to a hospital where he got “stitched up, tetanus injections and received the necessary antibiotics”.

According to his father, Kellan was in shock and in pain at the time, but is now recovering well and expected to return to school on Thursday.

“At the time, my focus was on chasing down the leopard and making sure he (Kellan) was fine. His brother was also quite traumatised, but he was brave for his brother.”

Since the incident, Kellan’s family has taken to calling him “Leopard Boy”.

The manager of the reserve, who asked not to be named, said they could not identify which leopard it was.

“There were three people who saw it and none of them could confirm whether it was male or female, but once I looked at the bite marks I could tell it was a male just by looking at the size.”

The manager said in the almost 40 years they have been around, they have never had an incident like that.

“Most likely the leopard was hunting impala and saw the little boy. Luckily the father chased him and the father was catching up, which is why (I think) he dropped him.”

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Cape Argus