Hunting

For the first time, we saw leopards on the ground.  The first morning at Governor’s Camp, we watched the sun rise, turned around in the Land Rover, and a leopard was quietly walking at the edge of the trees in our direction.

We saw leopards a number of times after that.  My favorite time was when we saw a mama with her mostly grown cubs, and she was teaching them to hunt.  I’m not sure how serious she was about choosing a target, although she had plenty of options around.

She would begin to move in a direction and all four cubs would move that direction too.  

She would sit and (eventually), one by one, the cubs would figure out they should stop also.  She was teaching them to be patient, check to see if their prey was paying attention, not to attack too soon.

I could have watched for quite a while longer but we couldn’t that day.

With a group that large, they could take down one of the larger members of the antelope family – a topi, maybe an eland.  More likely, though, they would go after a young impala or wildebeest.

Once a leopard kills, they eat as much as it can.  If possible, it will drag the rest of carcass to a hiding place or into a tree for safe keeping.  If it can’t get the kill into a larder, it is likely to be raided by scavengers – hyenas among them.

Hyenas are good for cleaning up a kill site.  They eat *everything*, including bones, which is why their poop is white.  The vultures will compete with them for the remains – watching for circling vultures or seeing vultures perched in a tree is a good way to find a recent kill.

So the menu rolls downhill from lions and leopards to hyenas and vultures.  Everyone is happy except the prey.

S.