You win some, you lose some. This leopard was just moments away from a warthog lunch when a hyena rushed in to ruin the meal …
Warning: Sensitive viewers may find this footage distressing.
Filmed earlier this year by field guide Daniel Hitchings in South Africa’s Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, the dramatic footage shows what can happen when competition for food in the African bush causes a hunt to go awry. Hitchings was taking tourists on a morning safari drive in the reserve when they got word of a male leopard in the area. They followed the big cat for some time, watching as he used the blustery conditions to his advantage, stalking a steenbok and then an impala. Neither of the hunts were successful, however, and the leopard climbed up a termite mound to gain a better vantage point of any potential prey when something caught the cat’s eye.
“He suddenly lost interest in the impala to focus his attention on the huge hole just below him, which I knew was an active warthog burrow,” Hitchings told Latest sightings. Warthogs typically hole up in abandoned aardvark burrows, preferring to reverse into their underground homes so that they can burst out if necessary. Catching warthogs is a game of patience and the leopard stayed put waiting for its potential meal to surface. The warthog, likely aware of the danger at this point, bolted from the burrow, but the cat was onto it in a flash. After riding, rodeo-style, on the warthog’s back for a moment, the leopard was soon able to pin down its prey.
Warthogs are not easily silenced and this one let out an ear-piercing screech which quickly piqued the interest of a hyena nearby. “The leopard got distracted by the approaching hyena, and when the leopard took his eyes off the warthog and loosened its grip to launch an intimidating snarl at the hyena, the warthog made good use of the opportunity!” Hitching explains.
Hitchings described the sighting as “once in a lifetime”. Sadly for the warthog, the predators’ persistence eventually paid off. After two days of hanging around the burrow, the leopard dug the warthog out and promptly lost its prize to a clan of hyenas. Never a dull moment in the African wilderness.