I'd say the last option makes the most sense, to be safe get a second opinion.
Answer:
Definition of preclude: to make impossible by necessary consequence : rule out in advance.
Explanation:
Preclude is often used in legal writing, where it usually refers to making something legally impossible. A new law may be passed by Congress to preclude any suits of a certain kind against a federal agency, for example. Some judges have found that the warnings on cigarette packs preclude any suits against the tobacco companies by lung-cancer sufferers. But there are plenty of nonlegal uses as well. Bad weather often precludes trips to the beach, and a lack of cash might preclude any beach vacation at all.
This sentence contains a participle, correctly punctuated.
The phrase <em>hiding in the brush </em>is the participle in this sentence (and it tells us what the leopard was doing), and it is correctly punctuated - there has to be a comma after this phrase because it is found in the beginning of the sentence, before the subject <em>the leopard. </em>
To get it started, see picture: