l6 THE MAMMALS OF SOMALILAND 



reach of jackals and hyaenas. I have seen as many as three 

 whole sheep up a tree. 



Leopards occasionally become man-eaters — this propensity I 

 should say is hereditary, as I have only known of man-eating 

 leopards in one locality, and that is a place called Daraas, on the 

 Golis Range. Near this place there are a number of Somali 

 graves, the occupants of which have all been killed by leopards — 

 probably a single leopard. This leopard was fortunately shot, but 

 about two and a half years afterwards another started man-eating 

 in exactly the same locality. The Somalis have a name for the 

 man-eating leopard, which they consider a different animal from the 

 ordinary cattle thief. The man-eater is known by the name 

 " Urgobeh." Leopards, even when wounded, invariably try to 

 get away, and I have never known them to attack a human being 

 unless brought to bay. I on' one occasion saw an old woman, 

 whose sheep a leopard had killed, approach the leopard, which had 

 been wounded and was trying to slink away, and throw stones at 

 it, while the leopard merely snarled at her. On another occasion I 

 shot a leopard up a tree where it had been driven by a crowd of 

 Somalis, who had chased it with spears and wounded it in the 

 shoulder. The Somali has little or no fear of the leopard. 



