At first glance this clip may seem like your ‘run of the mill’ leopard kill, with nothing out of the ordinary to distinguish it from any other. But if you look a little closer you’ll notice that there is in fact something unique about this particular kill.
Safari has the impala by the muzzle, and is using the suffocation technique to kill it instead of the traditional throat grip. This tactic is often employed by lions when taking on buffalo and other large prey species. Although we have occasionally witnessed leopards using this technique, it is not a common occurrence. When it does happen however, it is generally a female looking to kill a male impala or other large prey. We believe this method is used on larger prey species in order to immobilise the animal by holding its head down and keeping its horns away from the body.
Female leopard - Ntima - snapped while on drive with John and Roy
Guests Annekarien and Rene Bol vistited Arathusa toward the end of last year. They shot this incredible footage of these leopards mating while there. Click here to visit their website.
“In August 2011 we spent 4 nights in your beautiful lodge. It was an amazing stay, with lots of great sightings. We were out with John and Roy when we came across these two leopards mating. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.”
“My friend Ale and I arrived at Arathusa Safari Lodge before lunch on 26 November 2010, having seen our first leopard earlier that morning at another lodge where we had spent the previous two days. When we shared that we were going to Arathusa later that day, our ranger said “You’ll certainly see leopards there – that’s the leopard capital of the world!”. He wasn’t wrong! Soon after we set out on our first afternoon drive, Ryan (our ranger) and De Beer (our tracker) brought us face to face with a leopard – but there were many more to come the next morning.
Ale and I joined the morning drive on 27 November with Brendon as our ranger and De Beer as our tracker. On that drive, we saw 8 leopards! The first sighting happened when we observed a female impala staring into the bush in the early morning light. Brendon and De Beer decided to take us in the direction of her gaze – and it wasn’t long before we saw a male leopard up in a tree with a recently killed baby impala alongside it. The excitement of witnessing the leopard eat the baby impala, was mixed with the sadness of seeing the mother impala a short distance away watching its baby being eaten.
Shortly afterwards we followed another leopard, Safari, the oldest and best known leopard in the area. But the best was yet to come – we saw a male and female leopard as we ventured down a track. The male disappeared in the bush to the right of us, and the female, named Shadow, moved off to the left of the track. Brendon explained that it would be good to follow Shadow as far as possible because she may lead us to her two cubs. Thus began a thrilling journey deep into the bush, with De Beer maintaining sight of Shadow and navigating a way through the thick bush for Brendon to follow. We followed Shadow to a thicket where she had hidden her cubs. Cameras started clicking and my camcorder started recording the incredible scenes of the mother leopard grooming her cubs. After a while, she decided to move her cubs to a new hiding place. This provided us with an opportunity to see her and the cubs in more open spaces – all captured on video! It was the highlight of our Arathusa Safari experience!”
Mark Needham visited Arathusa in August this year. While there he witnessed Safari – our old leopard with the one blind eye – catch an impala and drag it up a tree. Fortunately for us he managed to capture the entire event of camera. He also has some other really cool footage on You-Tube. Go and check it out.
Oceanlvr97 visited Arathusa Safari Lodge from the 6th to the 9th of September, and recorded the footage for this stunning clip while on game drive with Andre (ranger) and Chris (tracker).
Mafufunyane, a territorial male leopard, kills a warthog on Arathusa Game Reserve in northern Sabi Sand (Mpumalanga). He tries to stash his prize in the marula tree, but his efforts prove unsuccessful.
On returning the next morning the rangers found that he’d finally managed to get it up a nearby saffron tree. In his absence a lioness from the Styx pride caught scent of the kill and tried to get at the carcass in the tree. This is very atypical behaviour as lions are not inclined to, or adept at climbing trees.
However, fortunately for Mafufunyane she only managed a few bites before leaving the kill alone. Perhaps a bout of vertigo caused her to reconsider?
That afternoon the leopard returned and fed – blissfully undisturbed – for the rest of the day.
