The devastating unfolding of events was witnessed by 35-year-old senior game ranger Michael Botes and a group of tourists who were with him on a game viewing adventure in the MalaMala Game Reserve.

Leopard climbs tree to escape lions
Michael and his fellow travelers had been on an afternoon safari when they had made their way to join a sighting of 12 sub-adult members of the Kambula lion pride.
Enroute, they found the Mlowathi male leopard. The old leopard had climbed up a tree with haste to evade the lions, however, the lion pride was not far off.
Michael explained he had stayed with the leopard because the lions were walking in that direction anyway. He speaks of how the two sightings now merged in this suspense-filled moment.

Lone lioness keeps her eye on leopard
It seemed the leopard had found a place of refuge. The lions had moved off and settled around a waterhole whilst the leopard groomed itself. The majority of the pride fell asleep, except for one female who kept a close eye on the leopard.

The leopard stayed in the tree a little while, and looking around, eventually decided to get down from its branches.
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A grave mistake
Had it not been for the single, observant lioness, he might have escaped the 12 lions unharmed. However, it soon became clear the leopard had made a mistake. Michael can be heard saying in the clip: “”It’s an extremely rare sighting,” and, “This leopard made a horrible mistake.”
A horrible mistake indeed!
Realising it had acted in error, the leopard instinctively ran to a second marula tree and climbed up to avoid the lions. The lions gathered around the trunk of the tree, while the leopard hissed at them in defence.
When a young lioness climbed up the tree, the leopard panicked and jumped out. Sadly, although landing without injury, the poor creature found himself surrounded by the lions.

The lions pinned the leopard down, and while he initially put up a fight, he eventually lay on his his back, weakened and dying. Watching the clip, Michael can be heard reassuring the tourists with him, fully aware the sighting was devastating to behold.
Only moments before, he had ascended the tree in all his glory. Now, he had no chance of outwitting a pride of lions. Leopards are generally solitary animals and this leopard had no back-up.

After 30 minutes of fighting, one of the lionesses got a stranglehold on the leopard’s neck and bit down. The leopard died in that instant.
Michael recalls the sighting with sadness and a deep reverence for nature: “In my 16 years in the bush I’ve never seen anything like this, and I have spoken to a lot of guides that have been in the industry their whole lives, and no-one has seen this happening. I think it happens more often than we realize though. As guides, we often stumble upon the remains of leopards that have been attacked and killed by lions and other predators. But to see it happening is just a matter of timing. Even though it’s hard to watch, it was interesting to witness such a rare yet disturbing sighting.”
He said that despite this having been one of the worst sightings he had ever witnessed, he now had a lot more respect and understanding of the power and will to survive of both these big cat species.