Patience blended with many hours out in the field and being in the right place and the right time are par for the course if you want a special sighting! To see a kill such as a lion killing an antelope, a leopard killing a baboon or a crocodile catching something in the water, are sights not seen in the wild every day! When we heard the baboons alarming calls, we had no doubt that a leopard had just killed something, but we weren’t prepared for what had actually happened.
Getting into position to see the leopard was quite a challenge initially due to some thick vegetation, but then we saw some movement and a brief view of a crocodile of about 6 – 7 foot, walk across a small gap in the brush. A blur of spots and dust followed, as a large male leopard jumped onto and killed the crocodile! He then dragged the croc back towards a thicket, giving us a glimpse of it as he did. I could see that the leopard had ripped a large portion of the side of the crocodile’s throat out. This, I imagined, he had already started to do in a previous attempt before we got there. I say this, because when we saw the “pounce” and heard the commotion, it was not long before the croc was dead and the leopard was already dragging it off…far too quickly for it to have been a first attempt!
Leopards are capable of killing large and potentially dangerous prey, such as a crocodile, but will also fill their diet with small creatures such as birds, fish and even insects. This is what allows them to survive in so many varied habitats, often right under our noses, without us ever realizing they are there!
We left the leopard with his kill, tucked up under a dense tangle of Caper bushes, with baboons scattered around the trees peering down at him and letting out their classic alarm call at their most feared enemy. I’m sure they were as surprised as we were to see the leopard killing this sized crocodile. A unique and very special sighting indeed, that I doubt we will see again or at least not for a very long time. This is what makes every game drive exciting… you just never know what is out there and what is going to happen!