4) Leopard of the Central Provinces: 150 Kills

Also called the Devilish Cunning Panther, this male Indian leopard was a top-notch man-eater. He chowed down on as many as 150 people over the course of a couple of years. People of the region were terrified and rarely left home unarmed.

An unnamed British hunter set up camp in a large village and collated reports of the beast’s activities. A young boy came to the hunter one day and told him the leopard had taken off his brother whilst they were tending to their cattle. The hunter set himself up in a tree overlooking the boy’s body, confident that the killer would return for its prize.

Sure enough the Devilish Cunning Panther came back after nightfall, but the hunter couldn’t get a clear shot in the dark through the undergrowth. He attempted to scare the creature into the open by shooting his gun but the beast was entirely un-phased.

After a few hours the hunter fell asleep in the branches, he awoke to see the leopard clawing at the bottom of his tree before it swiftly departed. The leopard returned a few hours later to finish lunch.

Three days later the leopard attacked some goats, the farmer drove it off. After a short time it returned for the goats but the farmer shot it dead with a projectile propelled from a gas pipe five yards away from it.

The hunter purchased the body from the farmer and during the autopsy found human hair in its stomach, confirming its man-eating status. It was quite a young animal and so the theory goes that its mother fed it human flesh as a cub and it got a taste for it.

☛ Watch Next: VIDEO: Leopard Vs Massive Python In South Africa