Big cats are superb predators, capable of bringing down a wide variety of prey that’s often bigger than them, and yet even they sometimes mess up badly enough that they have to question their own abilities.
Jaco Joubert filmed this leopard at the MalaMala Game Reserve, as it managed it get itself into a progressively more awkward position that ultimately meant it just had to give up with the whole thing.
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How Did We Get Here?
With the impala dangling from the tree, the strong jaws of the leopard the only thing holding it up, the big cat certainly looked like it had made a mistake and now regretted it.
Somehow, it must have slipped and the impala almost fallen back to the ground. Rather than let it go and try again, the leopard had committed to trying to drag the entire carcass back up into the tree.
It was a testament to the cat’s strength that the weight of the impala hadn’t dragged it out of the branches, as it was clearly taxing the leopard’s ability to hold on.
The Amazing Floating Leopard
Leopards are good climbers that often use trees as locations to store the spoils of their successful hunts. This leopard would have experience doing this, but clearly not quite enough to avoid this situation.
In a very impressive display of its acrobatic talents, the leopard brought its front paws into play to try and use its claws to get a better purchase on the impala to pull it back up into the safety of the upper branches.
With its rear legs hidden in the leafy canopy, it wasn’t clear exactly how the leopard was holding on, not only was the impala dangling from its claws, but it seemed like the entire leopard itself was suspended in the air.
A Distinct Lack Of Improvement
Presumably the leopard thought that using its claws would be a good idea. It turned out that taking two of its four legs to use to hold the impala instead of pulling itself back up was in fact a very bad idea.
The leopard’s rear legs were out of sight, but whatever purchase they’d managed to find in the bark of the tree was only enough to hang on, not enough to pull back up. For that the leopard would need the added strength of its front legs as well.
But those front legs were fully engaged in holding the impala which had slipped from between the leopard’s teeth, and now the big cat was dangling ridiculously in a silly position which it couldn’t get itself out of.
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Taking A Long And Hard Look At Itself
It was time for this leopard to run some calculations. Pulling itself back up wasn’t an option and it was clearly very reluctant to let the impala go, even if it would be able to just run to the bottom and get it again.
It dangled for a long time just looking longingly at its prey, and trying to figure out what to do next before it finally gave in to gravity and let the impala fall down to the floor.