This is the moving and emotional moment a buffalo mom stood by the tree where a leopard had hoisted her calf, in hopes of some miracle allowing her to get her baby back!
Last week, over the long weekend, we got a ting of a leopard that had just made a kill. But, this kill was unusual! It’s not often we get reports of a leopard killing a buffalo. Even though this was a baby buffalo, for the leopard to be able to dodge the herd, which are known to rescue their loved-ones, this was on its own a very rare sighting.
But, after the leopard dragged the carcass across the road, the mother of the buffalo calf didn’t give up. She stood by the tree for most of the day, in hopes of a miracle.
Gomondwane male leopard taking buffalo calf away from desperate mother
Yunus was the first one to ting the sighting on our WhatsApp group!
“We were approaching the sighting and we first saw some hyenas and the distressed female buffalo. I first presumed she was injured and that the hyenas were after her. Once we stopped the vehicle I looked up and saw the massive Gomondwane male leopard with the recently killed buffalo calf. The mother buffalo continuously circled the tree and the leopard kept his paw tight on the carcass so that it wouldn’t fall out of the tree. The buffalo mom hopes she could get her baby back. He jumped out of the tree a while later to get away from the female buffalo and returned later in the afternoon to eat his kill in peace.
Last weekend, after a long period of relative quiet, the wildlife protection force received a notification of a successful hunt of leopards. But, according to experience, the “cases” that are announced from time to time are hardly normal. In this case, the above truth continues to be true.
It can be seen that, working in a wildlife protection team in Africa, witnessing wild animals hunting is obvious, closely related to the job. However, it is not always or arguably very rare for the agency to receive information about leopards being able to take down a wild buffalo. Although in this case the “victim” is just a young wild buffalo, but in order for the leopard to be able to evade the protection of the buffalo herd – which is known to be one of the powerful collectives here, is an extremely limited thing that can be seen.
The African buffalo is one of the 5 animals with the largest body in Africa, an adult buffalo can weigh from 500 to 1,000 kg.
In particular, it can be affirmed that the African buffalo has a very high community character. They live in groups of more than 1,000 individuals. When living in herds, African buffaloes form two types of herds: large, mixed male-female and multi-age herds (reproductive herds) and single herds of all males.
In these herds, the leader usually holds his head high and observes. This behavior helps the African buffalo avoid the threat of attacks by lions, leopards, hyenas, etc.
The African buffalo has keen senses to detect predators through a combination of visual, olfactory and auditory cues. In particular, the African buffalo is capable of detecting lions at a distance of 1 km.
The first eyewitness and the creator of the clip, Yves Strybos, tells the story. That day, the first unusual thing that Yves noticed was a herd of hyenas surrounding a young female buffalo. Seeing that scene, this guy imagined a scenario where the buffalo had been hurt before and was sniffed by the hyenas. However, when he stopped the car to observe more conveniently, in fact, Yves discovered a completely different scene before his eyes.
A male leopard was dragging the carcass of a buffalo that had just been knocked down. But that’s not all. Behind that leopard was an adult mother buffalo, panicking after her. The clinging pressure of the mother buffalo caused the leopard to carry the carcass of its prey up the tree. However, the mother buffalo did not give up. It kept circling around the base of the tree and looking up at it hauntingly. She didn’t want to give up and hoped that her own efforts could help her get her baby back. Unfortunately, the opponent this time is too cunning and stubborn. Finally, the leopard escaped from the mother buffalo’s pursuit to enjoy a delicious meal.
The miracle did not happen for the poor buffalo.