Many animals have territories that they maintain and patrol to make sure others respect their boundaries, but no animal can be everywhere at once, and there are always going to be overlaps and intrusions.
The purpose of maintaining these territories is to ensure that competitors don’t come and catch all of the prey available in the area, leaving an animal with nothing to eat for itself.
This results in predators typically having violent reactions to each other, but Greg Heasman caught this leopard and hyena on camera almost getting along.
An Unlikely Pairing
Despite their reputation for scavenging what they can from bigger and more successful predators, a hungry hyena is just as likely to hunt as any other carnivore.
This one had come across a tasty meal, and it was possible that it had hunted it, but it was also possible that the carcass had fallen out of the nearby tree that was coincidentally perfect for a leopard to stash its food in.
As the hyena hurriedly ate as much as it could, no doubt conscious that it might never get such a golden opportunity again, a leopard emerged from the bushes behind it and started to approach.
Strangely Amicable
Typically, the presence of competitors elicits a loud, violent and intimidating reaction from predators. If this was a meal that the leopard had worked to hunt, then the hyena was benefiting from its hard work and the cat needed to do something about it.
But, although the leopard did try to take the carcass from the hungry hyena, it didn’t seem willing to put all that much effort into it. The big cat took a few swipes at the hyena, all of which appeared to be ineffective, and spent some time just standing watching it.
The hyena, meanwhile, did not appear to be afraid of the leopard at all and instead of running away it just carried on with its meal as if the big cat wasn’t even there.
Tug Of War
The two animals locked into a short tug of war as they fought over the meat, but neither one seemed willing to commit to going directly for the other, and neither was strong enough to rip the carcass from the other’s jaws.
At one point, the hyena seemed to be calmly eating the meat while the leopard looked about to settle in next to it to eat parts of the carcass as well, but it ended up hitting the hyena instead.
Eventually, the hyena appeared to get frustrated with the leopard, despite appeared otherwise unharmed by its attacks, and decided to back off for a few moments to let the leopard eat some of its food.
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The hyena might have been forced to back off momentarily, but this turned out to be the worst mistake it could make, as the leopard now had the golden opportunity it had been waiting for.
It seized the carcass in its jaws and with powerful bounds it climbed the nearest tree while the devastated hyena tried to follow to win back its meal. The leopard’s experience came in superior here, and it was able to steal all of the food from its rival.
These kind of sightings can be incredible to witness, as these animals appeared to be so close to reaching some kind of agreement, only for it all to fall apart at the last moment.