Look what the cat dragged in …
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Photographer Dietmar Willuhn captured these striking (and slightly unsettling) images of a leopard with an unusual catch in Botswana’s Selinda Game Reserve back in November 2012.
The unfortunate victim here is a caracal (Caracal caracal), a small, notoriously elusive cat that’s found throughout Africa, as well as in central and south-west Asia. Although a formidable predator capable of tackling prey two or three times its size, a caracal is no match for an adult leopard, and the odds in this fight were firmly stacked in the leopard’s favour.
Willuhn was on a guided safari drive when the tour group came across a leopard and her cub. “We were able to follow the leopard for some time,” he told Africa Geographic. “The peaceful situation suddenly changed when the leopard left the small cub hidden in the bushes to continue on her own. The adult leopard went into hunting mode and potential prey was not far away as some impalas were grazing close by.”
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Leopards are opportunistic hunters and will prey on anything that’s edible (even rhinos or bloated zebra carcasses), so while Willuhn and the rest of the tour group were anticipating an impala kill, the leopard had honed in on something else.
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn