Man who was attacked by leopard and needed 21 stitches explains the experience

Most of us are well aware that big cats are not to be messed with, and this is something one man learned hard way when he was attacked by a leopard.

The incident took place in Central Kenya's Lake Nakuru National Park, where it was explained that the leopard was captured after killing farm animals.

However, the leopard was far from a happy kitty at this point, and the men charged with its care soon found themselves in a seriously sticky situation.

This is because the leopard would not leave the trap on its re-release, leading to what was described as a 'critical mistake' by a ranger named Alexander.

The whole thing was recounted on an episode of Animal Planet's Untamed and Uncut.

This critical mistake involved the park ranger poking the leopard with a long stick in a bid to get it to go back to the wild.

This quickly brought the leopard back to life and it proceeded to attack the long stick (which to be fair, you'd probably do if we were woken up so abruptly).

The leopard soon bursts out of the cage and attacks the ranger's vehicle, quite literally pulling down one of its windows with its paw.

Alexander then tried and failed to wind up the window, but he wasn't fast enough, and this resulted in a full-on attack that nearly claimed his life.

This is because leopards kill their prey by going for the jugular, which is exactly what happened here.

But against the odds, Alexander manages to kick the animal away just in the nick of the time - even though he was left with injuries requiring 21 stitches.

He said it taught him a 'very painful lesson' that he will 'never forget'.

Animal Planet / Untamed and Uncut

"I was terrified," Alexander said while showing off his injuries on the show. "It hurt me pretty bad. Look at my head, it's cracked. It's ripped apart - almost made me blind."

As you can imagine, the segment garnered quite the response when it was reposed online.

Reacting to the footage, one viewer empathised with the leopard, writing: "Now imagine if a stranger pokes you with a long stick, why wouldn't you be pissed and want to punch that stranger in the face."

"This is why you never make animals mad," remarked a second while a third wrote: "Don't take a stick to a leopard fight."

A fourth added: "Good they didn't kill this animal and released it instead.

"Also shows how intelligent leopards are. She had a 'score' to settle with this pok-e-mon poking man. That takes forethought.

"This raised my respect for them. The rescuers and leopards."