Watch the Sighting:
Ranger Pieter van Wyk and his guest had just departed from their camp for an afternoon safari in MalaMala Game Reserve when this humorous sighting occured. After spotting a lioness with four cubs, Pieter decided to follow up on a reported sighting of a leopardess with a buck.
No Room for Sharing
When they arrived at the sight, they immediately saw the female resting with her buck, but to their surprise, she wasn’t the only leopard on the premises! A male leopard was wandering around the area and slowly making his way over to the female.
After a while, he finally spotted her and was immediately interested in the prize she had caught. The two stared each other down for a for several moments, and it was evident that the female was in no mood to share her meal.
The female watched the male closely for a while, but then ultimately decided to take a nap. With the female dozing off just inches from her kill, the male had a golden opportunity—but would he dare risk it?
A Sneaky Surprise
Pieter and his guest watched with wide eyes as the male leopard carefully crept towards the female. With every step, his eyes remained fixed on the prize, and drool hung out of his mouth over the prospect of a meal.
Finally, with the male about a meter away, the leopardess flicked her eyes open, and chaos erupted. She jumped into a defensive position and growled menacingly, then, in a flash, abandoned her meal entirely and bolted towards a nearby tree!
She rapidly climbed the tree to escape the threatening male, then hung around in the branches and watched as the male sauntered over to the buck and began to enjoy his meal.
In the End
Unfortunately for the male, the leopardess had cleaned off most of the meat from the buck’s carcass. It appeared that she realized the carcass wasn’t worth defending because she silently climbed down from the tree and slipped away while the male was engaged with it.
Pieter and his guest couldn’t believe how lucky they were to have witnessed this comical sighting. They were captivated by the stealth of the leopard and Pieter added that we must “appreciate the leopard for what it is — a finely tuned predator.”
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A Leopard’s Large Stomach
Leopards are carnivores and eat a variety of animals, but the vast majority of their diet comes from antelopes. They are capable of carrying animals heavier than themselves and are also known to climb trees with their prey and store them high up in the three forks — a process called “laddering”.
Each individual leopard is responsible for roughly 20 kills a year and typically consumes one-third of a fresh carcass. This adds up to about 400kg of meat for each leopard every year — just over one kilogram of meat per day.
This male leopard was lucky that the female had eaten her fill of meat for the day. He was able to pull off the ultimate robbery, enjoying a stolen meal without having to do any of the work.