Mauled film producer wants big cat spared

Judith Curran

A New Zealand documentary maker mauled by a leopard in Africa has been discharged from hospital and is coming home.

Judith Curran hopes the leopard isn't put down, though she lost a fist-sized chunk of flesh from her right leg in the attack at a Namibian wildlife sanctuary on November 18.

The 5-year-old, hand reared, male leopard also pierced her right hand.

No one is sure what provoked the attack.

Ms Curran was lucid throughout, her only thought of survival.

"I was holding my leg together. I actually had my hand inside my leg trying to stop the bleeding," she said.

The camera also captured the attack. Ms Curran has watched the footage once. "It's going to be part of my healing process to watch it again."

Ms Curran was flown to the intensive care unit at Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital.

Her husband, Chris Prendergast, flew to South Africa to be by her side.

After undergoing several operations, she is already back on her feet, albeit hobbling.

Her speedy recovery has impressed the surgeons.

"The doctors were very complementary on my healing prowess," Ms Curran told the Herald from Johannesburg this week.

She plans to fly back to New Zealand with Mr Prendergast on Tuesday.

Ms Curran, 46, of Dunedin, works for film production company Natural History New Zealand.

She had been filming a wildlife documentary called Super Scavengers in Australia and Africa before the attack.

She and her crew went to the sanctuary to film the leopard, Akira, for the second to last day of the shoot.

Akira charmed three or four of the crew members and Ms Curran by tamely brushing against their legs.

"Then he took a big bite," she said.

She saw the wound in her leg for the first time since she was savaged when doctors removed the bandages on Monday.

The said the scar would take time to get used to, but she counted herself lucky that her muscles, arteries and nerves were virtually intact and that she had not lost her leg, or worse, her life.

"Leopards don't take prisoners. Everyone I've met in Africa just can't believe I'm still here."

Ms Curran believes nightmares about the attack will haunt her for some time yet, but for now she is looking forward to returning home and seeing her family and friends.

Finishing her documentary, which pays tribute to nature's "baddies", is also a priority.

She hasn't decided if Akira's attack will make the cut.

"I'm not sure how the story's going to play out," she said.

She did not want Akira put down.

"Why this particular attack happened, God only knows." 

Leopard strikes

* Statistics on leopard attacks in Africa are scarce but Indian records show death is common.

* Twelve out of 32 leopard attacks near Mumbai in the first six months of 2004 were fatal.

* In the northern state of Uttaranchal, leopards kill about 34 people every year.