Taxidermist and Animal Conservationist Carl Akeley with Leopard. Somaliland circa 1896

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[General Asad]

Backstory:

Notable American taxidermist and animal conservationist Carl Akeley is shown in this photograph as he poses with a leopard that he killed with nothing more than his bare hands. Image taken somewhere in the Somaliland region of Africa, circa 1896. Akeley was on his first trip to the African continent with an assistant when he began hunting for ostrich and warthog specimens for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, as he mainly only hunted for educational and scientific reasons and never for sport. As he hunted in the Somaliland he noticed what he at first assumed was merely a hyena attacking a warthog behind some tall grass, and wanting to take both or at least either one back to the United States he raised his rifle, aimed and then pulled the trigger, which was foolishly done without actually seeing what he was firing at. However he quickly realized his newfound mistake when he heard a snarl come from the animal, and he quickly managed to figure out what species it was. It was not a warthog... and it certainly was not a hyena... Instead it was a leopard. A now very angry leopard. and unfortunately for him it was still alive.... Obviously Akeley didn't want to become a tasty snack for the animal so he fired more shots at the charging beast, and although he did graze it with one bullet the other shots completely missed. Akeley, now very terrified and absolutely desperate, tried to run away after realizing he was out of ammo, but the big cat charged at the American and quickly jumped on and latched it's teeth into one of his arms. The two then began wrestling back and forth for their lives and both had tumbled to the ground together, but Akeley emerged victorious in the battle by ramming his right arm down the leopard's throat while using his left hand to strangle it to death on the outside. He had literally choked a leopard to death from both the inside and outside, killing it with only his bare hands. Akeley would eventually recover from his wounds and he even brought the leopard back to America, where he made sure to taxidermy it and put it on display for all to see.