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Home Animals Wow: Watch Greedy Leopard Catch Entire Warthog Family

Wow: Watch Greedy Leopard Catch Entire Warthog Family

This leopard didn’t stop after just one warthog, but instead was hungry enough to catch all three.

Oscar Betts
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Caspar Siebel managed to capture an amazing confrontation between a hungry leopard and an entire family of warthogs on 27 December 2023, while in the Greater Kruger area.

Caspar and his dad were the only ones on the safari vehicle while travelling through the Sabi Sand area, and were able to get right up close to see the leopard as it approached the warthog den stealthily. Caspar described it as “the perfect setting for an epic wildlife sighting, but no one knew just what we were in for”.

Ambush Predators

Leopards, like other big cats, are ambush predators, meaning they’ll get as close as possible to their prey without being detected before surging forwards as quickly as they can to kill their target quickly by attacking a weak spot such as the neck.

These predators prefer to get in and get out fast as they aren’t built for long chases, or drawn out fights, which is part of what made this sighting so special.

The leopard had the perfect opportunity to hunt the warthogs as they tried to escape their den, and while it didn’t have the stamina to chase the adult male warthog that got away, the piglets are more than easy prey for it.

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But while a leopard would usually secure its food and escape with it to hide it in a tree and eat at leisure, this one just kept going, claiming both piglets, and then attacking the adult female warthog in the trees.

A Senseless Slaughter

The reason leopards hide their kills from scavengers in the trees is because they like to take their time devouring the carcass, and they aren’t able to defend their kills like pack animals are. Hiding their food allows them a few days to eat it undisturbed, all of which means that one kill would usually last them a long time

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The piglets might not be big, but the leopard can only carry them one at a time, which means that typically, once the leopard had its kill, it should have retreated with it, rather than carrying on. This leopard just kept going and going, claiming all the warthogs available.

Fight Or Flight

Although the piglets were too small to put up much of a fight, the adult female warthog was more than ready to resist the hungry leopard. They’re difficult to make out as they scrap in the trees, but the grey blur is the warthog doing its best to fight off the leopard, likely trying to protect its piglets, not knowing that the leopard’s already caught them.

For the warthog father to flee is more atypical behavior for the animals in this sighting, as when threatened warthogs tend to try and find an easily defensible point, such as the entrance to their burrow, and then use their tusks to keep predators at bay. In this case, the leopard goaded the hogs out of their safe burrow and into the open where it had the advantage.

Mister Pig

Warthogs, whose appearance belies their intelligence, have managed to escape being classed as endangered due to their adaptability, but this poor piggy family made a strange choice and ultimately paid the price.

This is certainly an encounter to remember, and shows that not all animal behavior can be group together so easily, as the chaotic nature of… nature, will always reassert itself over human attempts to categorize.


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