In the wild, something as simple as getting a drink of water can be a high-risk, high-reward activity, as animals never know what else might be lurking around the water’s edge.
Gabriele Harmer spotted this thirsty impala taking its last drink at the MalaMala game reserve, and caught the leopard’s perfect hunt on camera, sending the footage to Latest Sightings. She had front row seats to the rapid takedown.
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Seeing a master of stealth secure a meal in the blink of an eye is a powerful reminder of nature at work. Get immediate updates on more intense predator hunts by joining our WhatsApp community today. Just click this link to start getting our alerts directly to your phone.
Taking Risks For Survival
This impala was no doubt trying to take a nice cooling drink during a hot day. Water is vital for life, which means sooner or later every animal has to find a source of it that they can drink from.
Unfortunately for the impala, predators know this and they often take the opportunity to ambush prey animals, or hunt them around waterholes. Knowing that something will come by eventually makes them good places for ambush predators to hang around.
Not only do they have the opportunity to drink themselves, but they might also be able to capture a nice tasty meal. For the prey, it’s an impossible risk to avoid, as without water they will die.
Too Little Too Late
Like other big cats, leopards like to ambush their prey and bring them down before they even have the chance to escape. They rely on their natural stealth abilities, and explosive bursts of strength to approach their target, and then quickly close the distance.
This leopard crept along a handy ridge behind the impala before charging, confident that even if the impala realized it was in danger, it wouldn’t have a chance to escape before the leopard had seized it.
This calculation proved to be correct, as the impala suddenly realized that its life was in danger and tried to bolt, but it couldn’t build up enough speed before the leopard was on top of it, and closing its jaws around its neck.
A Perfect Show
For Gabriele, and others in the vehicle, this was a perfect display of this leopard’s hunting prowess. It used its combination of stealth and power perfectly to bring down the impala and secure itself a meal with minimal effort.
The sudden appearance of the big cat panicked the impala which knew it had to flee but didn’t have time to think about a direction, and so leapt one way only to try and double back to another, which gave the leopard enough time to bring it down.
The explosive power which the leopard used to break out of its stealth and attack the impala meant that by the time the prey was aware it was in danger, it was already too late for it to react.
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Taking The Time To Get It Right
Just like the careful calculation that went into its hunt, this leopard used tactical thinking to drag its dinner into the nearby brush. It would need to stash the carcass somewhere safe before it could take the time to devour it.
Hunts can be noisy affairs, and any competition in the areas, like lions, wild dogs or hyenas, might come over to investigate. While hyenas might be the only ones with a reputation for scavenging, any of these other predators might have challenged the leopard for its hard-won meal.
The leopard would make sure it was safe and secure before taking the time to eat the impala, which meant Gabriele and her group could simply appreciate the big cat’s success as it left the edge of the water.