Prince of Cats (Oxford India Paperbacks)

The leopard is one of the most beautiful Great Cats in creation, and it is now endangered in many countries. This fact led Arjan Singh, the celebrated Indian wildlife expert to attempt a daring experiment: rear a leopard cub in his house and return it to the jungle. The story of how Arjan Singh taught Prince and then the twins Juliette, and Harriet the ways of the forest is enthralling from start to finish. Sharing his whole life with them, building then machans (tree platforms), walking the jungle tracks in their company, encouraging them to hunt, teaching them to disembowel their kills, he came to know the ways and character of the leopard as no man has before. His first great success came when Prince at last took to the jungle, fully rehabilitated.
Not only did the author succeed in returning a hand-reared predator to the forest, he has debunked the myth that leopards are treacherous and unpredictable. On the contrary, he demonstrates the 'essential tranquility' of the leopard's temperament, and shows that it is only the animal's intelligence, combined with its capacity for effective retaliation when cornered which has given it a bad name.