I think the comments here have been quite reasonable.

Looking at options means one can learn from others misfortunes.

One thing that would be interesting to know is how often do leopards turn and fight when being chased by hounds. I read it is quite common.

One thing that did stick out from the reports was the assumption the leopard was gone and the nonchalance of poking around where it had just vacated. But who knew it was waiting there with "murder in its heart". A tough angry leopard. But as I said before "Shit happens".