At first, a detailed report of the sighting + my impressions about it, and then the pictures in chronogical order.
It happens in October 2009, on the Kwando concession. As usual, we were out in the early morning when we came across fresh leopard’s spoors. We, of course, followed the tracks and when they went off road, Simon, the tracker went off the car to have a better reading of it. He was walking a few meters in front of the vehicle, his eyes focused on the ground, when Spencer called him back on the car, the leopard was walking 25 meters in front of Simon. It was a big male, very relax, known by Spencer; he had even given him a name “The Magician”.
The territory of this leopard was going from the flooded plains to the mopane passing by the only baobab of the concession. We were just close to the baobab when they began to track the “Magician”.
A few minutes after, Spencer, as well as the leopard, spotted two warthogs (a heavily pregnant female and one of her offspring from the previous year) that disappeared in a burrow. The leopard then decided to ambush just at the entrance of the hole. Spencer said it will not take all day, between 1 ½ and 2 hours, the warthogs being not too patient.
After one hour and a half of patient waiting, the two warthogs, suddenly appeared, the leopard pounced on the female.
During the wrestling, the leopard tried to reach the throat while trying to keep, with his back paws, the warthog’s head at a distance, to provide against the sharp tusks. The warthog was screaming loud. After ten minutes of a wild battle, the leopard succeeded in immobilizing the warthog, his mouth and fangs on the warthog’s neck. We all then thought that it was finished when, attracted by the shrieks, a hyena decided to be part of the action. The leopard, of course, had to release his pressure and the warthog, badly injured, managed to escape.
It’s very difficult to say what’s finally happened with the warthog which was heavily injured and bleeding a lot. Spencer had 2 scenarios. Number one, the heavily pregnant female warthog sheltered in a burrow and died there or survived. Number two, as she needed all her forces and energy to recover, she might have made a miscarriage and perhaps survived.
It is not uncommon to see a hyena saving the life of a leopard’s prey. I have seen it several years ago in the Savute with an impala.
On the other hand I have never seen an incident with such savagery and violence but also with such reaction speed to the moves of the opponent, especially in the warthog’s right. Before being the witness of this, it was very difficult for me to imagine that an animal like a warthog could resist, almost ten minutes, an eternity for such a situation, to the power and speed of a leopard.
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