Source: My London
Date: August, 2025
Location: Sussex
A man has reported being knocked over and scratched by a big cat during a countryside walk in Sussex.
The man, who remained anonymous, was left with three scratches across his shoulder. Looking at the pattern of the marks, they do appear to match those of a big car claw mark, normally 3 or 4 scratches in a parallel formation. There is also bruising around the marks indicating the significant force that was behind the cause of the marks. However, they do not appear to be particularly deep. Given how incredibly sharp the claws of a leopard are, and the context of the incident, it may be expected that any claw marks would sink deeper.
Attacks on humans are extremely rare. The full incident the man describes gives an indication of perhaps why the cat collided with him. He describes watching some deer in a meadow, before the leopard jumps out and bounds on a deer, before letting go and then bounding into him as he stood watching. The cat may have felt that he intervened or disrupted it’s hunt, which would give reason for its apparent unprovoked attack. One this is for sure is that if the cat wanted to seriously harm him, it could’ve done much more damage.
Interestingly, the man describes the cat as being a normal leopard, with sandy coloured fur and black spots. This contradicts the majority of reports in the UK of melanistic leopards, although there are some other sightings with the standard colouration.
