Ryan Jenkins, a 45-year-old self-employed carpenter, caught this incredible struggle on camera on the road running next to the Sabie River towards Skukuza, just past the S4.
He told Latest Sightings that it had been a quiet day for them, as they’d “spotted the odd impala, a few hippos here and there, and general game”, but they hadn’t yet encountered anything that truly sparked their awe.
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It was then that they “saw a Giraffe standing in the middle of the road looking towards the bush closest to the river with his ears pulled down, which is an obvious sign of nervousness”. They were about to come across something incredible to witness.
Leopard Vs Leopard
Once they’d spotted the giraffe, they quickly identified the “great big ball of dust going over the road” which had unnerved it, and they hurried towards it, eager to see a predator.
They were lucky enough to see more than one predator, although it took them a moment to process exactly what they were seeing. Ryan said “we realized it was a leopard” quickly, but with shock they realized it was actually two.
The big cats were locked in a deadly struggle to clamp their powerful jaws around each other. Such fights are rare for predators, where the slightest injury might prevent them from hunting and cause them to starve.
Posturing Predators
Just like house cats, leopard competition with each other is typically limited to a lot of noise and posturing rather than true physical action. The intent of this behavior is to convince the competitor that a physical fight isn’t worth the trouble.
This way one leopard might establish dominance over another without ever needing to risk being on the receiving end of its teeth or claws. It’s not a guarantee that this posturing will work, however, and in some cases physical intervention is required.
There are a few reasons that a fight like this might erupt, but most commonly it’s a question of food or territory. Leopards are solitary animals, and males have to guard their own areas to ensure they’re free from competition.
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More Than Just A Scuffle
The lack of any evidence of either of these leopards hunting led Ryan to conclude that “it could only be about territory”. As the leopard’s wrestled, it became obvious that there was a clear size difference, meaning one of them was likely younger.
Whether the larger leopard was expanding its own territory, or defending it from an upstart younger cat is unclear, but several times the smaller leopard rolled onto its back, displaying submissive behavior to the larger and likely older one.
This didn’t stop the fight though, as Ryan said “the smaller leopard came back again and again”, antagonizing the larger one so much that it “grabbed the small leopard by the neck and held him down forcefully”.
Dominance Established
The larger leopard was clearly stronger than the smaller one, and if the smaller one was trying to invade the other’s territory then it had made a fatal miscalculation.
While previously the larger leopard had been letting the smaller one go free once it showed more submissive behavior, this time it kept holding it against the ground until Ryan said he could “see the little one suffocate”.
Sightings like these can be sad to witness, but as Ryan says, “that’s life in the bush”. These animals don’t operate according to our ethical boundaries, and if the death of the smaller leopard guarantees the survival of the larger one, then it’s easy to see why it acted this way.
