In the MalaMala Game Reserve, a female leopard steals a young impala lamb, using it as a training tool for her young pups instead of as a potential meal.
Field guide Michael Botes, 34, had the good fortune to witness a female leopard teaching and perfecting her young pups’ hunting techniques.
“On the MalaMala game reserve, the Nkoveni female leopard and her two female pups were moving across a clearing. The cubs were following their mother from a considerable distance and were in typical cub form, being very playful. The Nkoveni female approached a little thicket as they approached the bushline and extracted a day-old impala lamb that had been tucked away there by its mother.
She brought the live impala to her cubs instead of killing the lamb and carrying it carefully in their direction. To educate the cubs how to hunt, this was done. Without delay, the bigger of the two cubs took the impala from the Nkoveni female and carried it up a tree. She had to keep her corpse hidden from her mother and sister out of instinct.
Big cats typically take advantage of any chance to impart survival knowledge to their offspring. Lions and cheetahs have also been observed in similar circumstances. However, it’s possible that this was the first time leopards interacted in this way.
The impala was still alive, so as it was up the tree, it started to kick and fell to the ground. This was the only issue. Before the other cub could catch it, it had hardly hit the ground. After then, the cub fled in a long run. The next 40 minutes were spent by both cubs trying to kill the impala one at a time. The lamb eventually died when one of the cubs bit down on its neck.
“Then, all three leopards began consuming the carcass. The little corpse was totally picked clean after tearing through the tender skin on the underside. The way leopards train their cubs to hunt was a painful sight to witness, but it was also quite fascinating.
Leopards suffocate their victim by biting its neck and obstructing its airway in order to subdue it. Leopards are frequently observed carrying their prey into the safety of adjacent trees after a slaughter. This protects the catch from other scavengers and predators like lions and hyenas.
After catching the baby antelope, the leopard does not kill its prey immediately, but tries to “seduce” the opponent to be its baby. However, when it has achieved its wish, it kills and eats the new child.
According to Latest Sightings, this scene was captured by Andre Fourie, a tour guide and ranger, in the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Before that, the leopard had easily grabbed the antelope just a few weeks old.
It is worth mentioning here that, instead of immediately killing the prey, the leopard gently “stroking” the baby antelope.
It even tries to make the baby antelope recognize itself as the mother.
After a while of persistence, the leopard also received the desired result when the baby antelope no longer intended to run away and followed it.
However, Andre Fourie revealed the heartbreaking truth that the leopard only adopted the antelope for 40 minutes. Because then, it decided to kill its prey to satisfy its hunger.
The impala is an herbivore, with a slim body, extremely common in the savanna of Africa.
This is a herd animal and is active most of the day. In addition to the large horn about 90 cm long, used mainly to intimidate (but does not seem to be very effective), an important skill for the impala to survive in the wild is the ability to jump long distances.
This animal can overcome bushes and other obstacles by jumping 3 m high and successfully performing long jumps of more than 10 m. Usually, they jump over anything on the run.
It is thanks to this special ability that impalas, which are considered “moving pieces of meat” on the steppe, sometimes create action masterpieces before the heart-pounding chases from wild animals. Due to their large numbers, impala is the favorite prey of all carnivores in Africa such as lions, leopards, hyenas, crocodiles…
However, in some cases, prey can make friends with wild animals either officially or informally, the story below is an example.
The footage was filmed by tour guide Michael Botes at the MalaMala Animal Sanctuary.
Accordingly, parents and children of journalist Nkoveni were caught walking around in Michael’s moving area. They seem to be very comfortable because the weather is nice, so the cubs run around excitedly following their mother. Suddenly, when passing through a nearby bush, the mother leopard suddenly crawled inside, leaving her cubs behind.