This post documents the last of our four close encounters with leopards in Namibia during November 2022.
The featured image shows “our hero”, not long after we had noticed him.
He was to our right; his quarry (a springbok) was where all the visible grazing mammals were at that time – to our left, on the other side of the relevant road.
The above two photos were taken at 9.36 am on 07 November 2022.
As you can see, it was clearly evident that this leopard had already “targeted” a particular individual – one of a number of springboks (and zebras) who were grazing on the much grassier, Etosha Pan side of “our” road.
All photos in this post are in chronological order, and cover a span of 23 minutes.
Throughout, I kept my eyes’ and camera’s focus on the leopard.
Once he had briefly “checked us out” – and was satisfied that we “were not a problem” – the leopard concentrated entirely on his quarry…and to ensuring that he remained “invisible” to his intended prey (and to every other grazing animal, nearby) as he moved closer and closer.
Eventually, he hoped, he’d get close enough to launch a lethal attack.
Five minutes after we had started to observe the leopard, he managed to cross the road.
Now, still unnoticed by any of them, he was on “the grazing prey animals’ side of the road”.
It looked increasingly likely that we were shortly to witness an attack…perhaps, a kill.
Then, suddenly, one of the zebras noticed the leopard.
Alarm sounded: unobservant springbok saved by watchful zebra.
Game over.
We had just been reminded that only circa one in eight hunting attempts is a success, from the predator’s perspective.
Shortly thereafter, our hero retraced his steps, much more quickly than when in “stealth mode”, but at walking pace; there was no point in wasting precious energy.
