While out on a drive, 33-year-old field guide for Mankwe Gametrackers, Tarryn Rae captured this amazing sighting of the fierce competition predators face in the wild. She told Latest Sightings it was “such an adrenaline rush and a feeling of gratitude to be in a position to witness this kind of interaction”.
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Tarryn’s guest was apparently excited for a potential leopard sighting, and after a quiet morning Tarryn “heard that a leopard had been spotted about 2km up the road” they were already on.
By the time they’d moved further up the road the leopard had made good use of its natural stealthy abilities and disappeared into the bush, as leopard’s can make themselves very difficult to spot when they want to.
Deadly Piggyback
Without the leopard to observe, Tarryn said “we then stopped to look at two small warthogs for a brief second and while watching them, I mentioned to my guest that leopards love eating warthogs”.
Tarryn’s experience didn’t fail her, as they quickly spotted a leopard that had already caught a warthog and was trying to bear it down to the ground. This warthog wasn’t going to go down without some serious effort though.
The leopard had caught the back of the warthog’s neck in its sharp teeth, but the huge hog was spinning on the spot, making it look like it was giving the leopard some kind of piggyback.
Undaunted Warthog
The leopard had a firm hold on the hog, but it was in a perilous position, as Tarryn said if “the Leopard had to let go at that point he could possibly get injured by the massive tusks” of the warthog.
Knowing this, the leopard held on as best as it could, trying to get a better hold, and maybe even bring the warthog down under its own weight. The big cat might have had eyes bigger than its stomach though as the hog was bigger than it.
A Curious Competitor
The hog’s loud squealing as it tried to throw off the attacking leopard must have traveled far, and if the leopard couldn’t bring it down quickly, it was inevitably going to attract the attention of other predators.
The sounds of a fight means there might be something a hungry predator can steal, and when Tarryn and her guest looked up, “another big male leopard was crossing the road in the direction of the squealing warthog”.
Leopard’s are just as willing to steal food from others as lions, hyenas and dogs are, but due to their solitary nature they don’t get the chance as much as predators that roam in packs. Against another leopard though, this male clearly thought the odds were good enough for him to try.
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Clash Of The Predators
As Tarryn and her guest watched, the two leopards “stood eyeing each other for a second and then the claws came out and a fight erupted”. The battle between the two was savage, with the original leopard’s maw already covered in blood.
The intruder may have been hoping to steal a little food without having to put much effort into a hunt, but instead it found itself in a battle where the slightest mistake might mean a dangerous injury.
Opportunistic Escapist
Hilariously, the two leopards fought each other so ferociously that they both forgot to keep an eye on the warthog. Tarryn and her guest were paying attention to it though, watching it “walking out from the bush and make its way towards a burrow”.
It was “the warthogs lucky day” Tarryn said, as the two leopards lost sight of it, and “were seen around there a few times throughout the day probably looking for the warthog”.
Hopefully it survived its injuries, and the leopards found themselves another meal.