Leopard Predation Thread

[Spalea]

James Tyrell: " As you can tell, the grass was pretty long here, so the photographic potential was limited, but this is still one of the most heart-thumping, adrenalin-fueled sightings I’ve ever been in. A mating pair of leopards was moving slowly along a road when the male suddenly crouched low and quickly slunk into the bush up ahead. Seconds later the thicket he’d entered erupted into unholy squeals and bellows, with dust billowing and the grass thrashing about.

The leopard had hit a warthog piglet and broken its back, but he’d then been hammered by the mother defending her piglet, and he then leapt onto her back (seen in these photos).
Having been taken by surprise his haste to leap on the sow meant he couldn’t get a proper grip on her throat, and only managed to grab her by the back of the neck. She was still very much alive and squealing. The grass was so long that the only way to see anything was to be pretty close, so the dust kicked up by predator and prey was all around us!
After what seemed like ages but was probably less than a minute, the female leopard had moved in and put an end to the piglet’s squeals, and the male had subdued the sow to a point where she was exhausted and he was able to shift his grip to her throat and end her struggles once and for all. Wild. "

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