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Wayne Druian sent in this sighting of competition between predators approaching the absurd, in what he described as “the game reserve sighting jackpot!”
Seeing three different predators competing for a single kill really is a special experience, but it’s impossible to predict what will happen when going out on safari.
Eyes On The Prize
It was the sound of baboons which alerted Wayne and his group to the potential for an interesting sighting. Although Wayne said they’d “just missed the actual catch”, they “spotted the leopard, dragging an impala, with a wild dog hot on its pursuit”.
The impala was too big for the leopard to handle easily, so even though the first dog was keeping its distance, it was harassing the leopard enough that it would have to drop the impala to take care of it.
It was clearly unwilling to do so, but eventually the wild dog got a little too close and the leopard decided it had no choice if it wanted to protect itself and its meal. The chase was short with the leopard immediately returning to the struggling impala, but it was an opening for the dogs.
Deadly Competition
The unlucky leopard was only moments away from the tree when three wild dogs appeared seemingly out of nowhere to charge at it. The size of the impala meant the leopard couldn’t carry it up the tree while fending off the dogs, and it had a difficult decision to make.
It abandoned its meal and leapt up the tree where it was safe, but hungry. The amount of wild dogs that were waiting for the impala to be accessible means this leopard made the right decision.
Living solitary lives, leopards can’t risk an injury fighting competitors for their meals, and other predators stealing their meals is a real risk for them.
Sudden Swarm Attack
The impala made a last desperate dash from the base of the tree but the dogs brought it down quickly, and the rest of the pack joined the three that won the impala from the leopard.
Wayne told Latest Sightings that the wild dog pack was “made up of 11 adults and 10 pups,” and almost all of those adults surged onto the scene when the leopard abandoned the impala.
Just as leopards can lose kills to wild dogs, the dogs can lose them to bigger predators like lions and hyenas. While leopards get around this by hiding its food in trees where other predators can’t reach it, the wild dogs began eating straight away, devouring the impala before killing it.
Hungry Frustration
From its vantage point in the tree, the leopard could do nothing but watch the swarm of dogs quickly consumed its hard earned prey, as they almost clambered over each other to get a bite.
Despite its greater size, the leopard was hugely outnumbered, and as Wayne noted, most of the wild dogs set about eating the impala “while two others kept the leopard in the tree by jumping up and snarling”.
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Surprise Competitors
It wasn’t over, though, and it may have come as some consolation to the leopard that the wild dogs almost immediately had their own tactics used against them.
With the leopard trapped in the tree, and the dogs tearing into the impala, it took everyone by surprise when two hyenas sprinted in to take their part of the meal.
Now the battle was joined in earnest as the dogs desperately tried to ward the larger beasts away, but one hyena fought them while the other enjoyed a tasty meal.
The wild dogs were unwilling to give the impala up, but more hyenas quickly arrived, and by the time the dogs could once again reach the carcass there was very little left. The only one who ate none of the impala was the unlucky leopard.