There's been a story in all the newspapers here about a 9 year old boy whose arm was mauled by a leopard on Tuesday, while on a school excursion to Melbourne Zoo. He apparently climbed over a barrier and had his arm deeply scratched by Kashmar, the one-eyed female Persian leopard. He's recovering well and doesn't seem to bear a grudge. However, it's interesting that today's papers have universally paraphrased or altered the boy's quote about revisiting the Zoo, where he talks of in future going past the "cheetah" that got him on the way to see the reptiles - replacing it with the word "leopard" instead (the real soundbite was played on Triple J's news yesterday).

Beyond the editorial aspects of this change, a cheetah would have been extremely unlikely to attack him in this manner (particularly as it lacks retractable claws and doesn't prey on people) and there are currently none at Royal Park. Leopards have grown up with small primates (including humanoids) as a primary food source, since time immemorial. As this boy is apparently interested in animals, I wonder no-one has explained the difference between a cheetah and a leopard at this highly relevant stage. Fortunately, everyone seems to be regarding this attack sensibly, and I hope it won't mean added bars and fences on enclosures.

I'm probably writing this because it relates to a book review that I plan to write here soon... (no, not Life of Pi again :)).

And I'll ignore the predictable wide disparities in the representation of crowd estimates for Tuesday's Industrial Rally by the various presses...

P.S. No Illustration Friday from me this week - I've been rushing around doing a million other things and haven't had the "Strength."

Labels: Melbourne Zoo