Elusive leopards always make for exciting sightings, but seeing two at once, locked into a fierce battle no less, makes for something incredible. Tristan Allan-Reynolds saw this big cat fight near the Tanda Tula camp on the Timbavati Private Game Reserve.
Tristan told Latest Sightings this was their “first time seeing leopards not only fighting in a tree but falling out of a tree!” It was an intense territorial contest between two females, one called Dzindza and the other referred to as the Airstrip female.
Territorial Integrity
As solitary animals, the territory that leopards have access to is incredibly important. It can determine the availability of resources like prey, water, and shelter, as well as safety from other rivals that might attack.
Male leopards will often have territory that overlaps with female leopards for the purposes of mating, but otherwise all leopards tend to keep to themselves where possible.
For these female leopards this territory has extra significance, as they will be raising any cubs alone. To give them the best chance at survival they need to be able to keep them safe and provide for them until they are able to do so for themselves.
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I Can See My House From Up Here
One of the main ways that leopards try to keep themselves safe is by climbing trees. Their main threats, lions, wild dogs, and hyenas, aren’t nearly as good at climbing trees as leopards.
Unfortunately, this tactic doesn’t work so well against other leopards which are more than capable of high altitude pursuits. At the beginning of Tristan’s footage, both leopards were already very high up in the tree.
It wasn’t clear which leopard was Dzinda, or which was the Airstrip female, or which of the two was attacking or defending, but given the precariousness of their situation it was clear that both big cats had committed themselves to the fight.
Coming To Blows
Most big cat battles are mainly bluster and intimidation. No predator actually wants to physically fight another and put themselves at risk of an injury with serious consequences.
Infection is always a big risk, and leopards don’t exactly have easy access to antibiotics. Even if it doesn’t get infected then an injury could slow a leopard down, or otherwise impact its ability to hunt and get food for itself, or climb its tree.
The fact that these leopards weren’t simply trying to intimidate or deter each other made this a high-stakes confrontation. The height of the tree made it a high-action one.
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Cats Always Land On Their Feet
The battle escalated when one of the leopards leaped at the other through the branches. The two big cats were locked into a wrestling match with all four limbs, which meant neither of them were hanging onto the tree.
They fell through the upper branches, slamming against every one of them, before falling several meters down to the ground below. Both big cats managed to land on their feet, but the fight had gone out of them at the fall.
It was only a few minutes of growling at each other before one of them gave up the fight and fled the field, leaving the victor to enjoy the highly sought after territory.