Leopard Kill Mara
It was getting late and had been an unusually quiet afternoon with little on the go. Most likely the high temperatures had most of the animals taking shelter and lazing in the shade.
We started to see a few vehicles around us speeding south. ‘What’s up Andrew’ we looked at each other and without a word we headed of in the same direction as the others.
When we arrived the place was chaos, too many vehicles in too tight a space and no one seeing anything.
A few vehicles got bogged down in the dips so we pulled them out in order to gain a better position.
We positioned ourselves in a ring with four other vehicles on a flat mound that the river cut around.
Suddenly I spotted a large female leopard in the gulley below us dragging a Wildebeest along the edge of the river. It wasn't an easy task as the area was strewn with fallen trees and debris from a recent spate.
The bottom of the gulley was about ten foot below us and the edge was a vertical face.
The leopard was struggling with the wildebeest and I could see her eyeing the vertical route against dragging it across the fallen trees. In an instant she leapt up the vertical face with the wildebeest between her legs. The sheer power that she exerted, lifted her and the prey up the side and onto the level with us.
She lay there for sometime to recover, I tried to find a clear view to take some shots and ended up lying across the floor of the land rover. It couldn’t have been more uncomfortable but it gave me a clear shot of her and the wildebeest.
A few moments elapsed and she dragged the carcass to a more accessible position.
I heard her call and looked up the tree next to me to see a young cub sitting and watching. The cub answered the mother, climbed down the tree and headed over to the kill and tucked in. After a well filled belly the mother and cub sat and enjoyed the afternoon sun and each others’ company. We stayed with them for about an hour and then moved off to allow others an opportunity to photograph the pair enjoying a hard earned meal. We were ready for ours and headed for a quiet spot to tuck into the chefs packed lunch!
