Everyone knows that three’s a crowd, but that wasn’t about to stop this leopard from interrupting these battling impalas and take the center stage position for itself.
Victoria Craddock captured the footage of these impalas fighting it out at the MalaMala Game Reserve, when the Tlebe Rocks female leopard gatecrashed the party in a spectacular fashion.
The Calm Before The Storm
The impalas could have been fighting about several different things. Perhaps they were having a squabble over who got to eat the best food, or they were fighting for dominance in the herd.
Presumably neither of them would have focused on the other if they knew there was a female leopard nearby preparing to turn one of them into dinner.
They spent a bit of time sizing each other up, getting ready to use their horns to try and force the other into either submission or retreat, and then they got to work.
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Putting In The Effort
The Tlebe Rock female must have been laughing to herself as the impalas fought, only distracting themselves and allowing her to creep closer and closer, lining up the perfect ambush ready for when she saw an opening.
Oblivious to their own mortal danger, and wrapped up in their petty squabble, the impalas were really going at each other with their large horns trying to wound each other with savage headbutts.
They only had the opportunity to get a few good goes in before the leopard saw an opening to strike, and then their efforts went immediately from fight to flight, but it was already too little too late.
Rudely Interrupted
The leopard’s attack was lightning fast, and incredibly precise. The impala she’d targeted had quick reaction times, and it was able to turn and start to flee, even managing a few steps, before the leopard’s momentum carried her right into it.
Taken completely by surprise by the almost perfect ambush, the impala just didn’t have the opportunity to build up enough speed before the Tlebe Rock female was already right on top of it.
Using her weight to drag the impala to the ground, the leopard dispatched it there quickly and cleanly, ending any more ill-fated attempts at escape it might try.
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Only One Winner
While it did escape with its life, the impala that survived must surely have had an awful fright that it definitely wouldn’t forget anytime soon. It was, however, alive and it would survive another day at least.
In theory, this impala survivor had also won whatever the two antelope were fighting over, but because it had been scared away from the area it likely wouldn’t be able to capitalize on this.
This left only one victor: the leopard that the two impalas hadn’t even known was involved. The big cat had resolved the dispute, and in doing so it had pulled off a textbook ambush and secured itself a meal all at once, definitely not bad for a day’s work.