How the Serval was Found
A couple of days before this happened, there was a sighting on our app of two very popular leopards, Kgodisa and Gahiji, taking turns feeding on an impala in a tree. Christine, a member of our community, happened to be using our platform at the time and marked the location as a spot to check out.
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The leopards were tinged on Thswene Drive, between the Hippo Loop entrances. That’s exactly where Christine found the impala the next day; unfortunately, however, the leopards were nowhere to be seen.
But, there was a decent amount of meat left on the impala, so all hope was not lost. Knowing that anything could still happen, Christine decided to stay around a bit. She didn’t have to wait long for something even rarer than a sighting of two leopards to appear…

It wasn’t easy to see at first, but there was a serval sussing out the leftover impala all along. African serval cats are highly elusive even during active hours. If the serval wasn’t fully focused on the free meal in the tree, odds are that it would have gone completely unnoticed, even now, in the park’s peak season.
Christine couldn’t believe her luck. What are the odds of arriving at the sighting during the exact moment that a serval finds the impala, right? To make things even more extraordinary, the impala was wedged so tightly by its head and neck that the serval couldn’t get a firm grip. So, it wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon!



Serval’s Plan to Get Impala Out of Tree
For the little serval, the impala was placed so awkwardly that it couldn’t find a way to eat anything while it was in the tree. After trying for some time, the serval had to resort to a new plan: it was going to have to free the impala!


The goal seemed simple: it was going to hang onto the impala and swing and tug at it until it fell. There was just one thing that the serval didn’t take into consideration, and that was how well one of the leopards had wedged the impala!
The serval would dangle, swinging back and forth, but nothing! The impala simply refused to budge! At times, the poor serval would use its teeth, hanging for up to a minute, but it would end in failure each time!
Unlucky Serval is An Incredible Sighting
The serval used all the acrobatic tricks in the book until it had no more energy! Eventually, the serval realized that it wasn’t ever going to happen, and it moved on without having more than a little nibble of impala.
Disappointing for the serval, indeed. However, for Christine, on the other hand, this was incredible. It will no doubt be a sighting that she speaks about for years to come!