Highlight of the year: A Leopard kill next to our vehicle
Last Thursday, the biggest safari highlight of the year happened, just in front of our eyes. After a long time we discovered the wonderful leopard "Munye". We followed him for a short time when he was walking through the savannah. Then we saw how he killed a warthog right next to our vehicle. Our guests followed the spectacle and were blown away by this once in a lifetime experience.
"We were so happy to find Munye again, finally!" says Rhulani's ranger Alasdair, who managed to watch this wonderful animal from a pole position with all Rhulani guests on the vehicle, without knowing what spectacle would follow. Munye is our favorite leopard, but we haven't seen him for a few weeks. Alasdair thinks that maybe he wanted to have some relax from humans staring at him. And now, Munye was suddenly back.
Unexpectedly, the male leopard raised his head and ran off. Within seconds he grabbed a warthog, and we heard the poor animal squeak hopelessly. Everything happened too fast to capture the attack on video, but Alasdair was very fast and had his GoPro ready (see video).
Very quickly the extraordinary message was spread in the reserve, and safari vehicles arrived from all directions. Thank goodness, there is a good organization for sightings in Madikwe as well as vehicle restrictions, so that the beautiful leopard could start to enjoy his meal without any stress.
When the great rush was over, and all the vehicles returned to the lodges for dinner, we went out for a second time to look for Munye in complete darkness. Lo and behold, we found him, as he was still eating on the ground. We wondered: do leopards not climb on a tree to be protected?
As soon as we thought of it, Munye drags the dead warthog through the bushes to a tree. He fimly bites the prey, takes it between his body and the tree trunk, and climbs up. In the first attempt he falls down from the tree, together with the prey. Alasdair says: "Munye is a relatively small leopard that weighs about 70 kg. The dead warthog is a fully grown male of about 40kg". Munye starts a second attempt and climbs up as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
The last pictures are the ones that every safari visitor has on the wishlist: A leopard, peacefully sitting on a tree, with a kill. Rhulani's guests were lucky that day. There are only a few things that nowadays really astonish people. But this experience was certainly one of those things.
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