What do a leopard, a slender mongoose, and a lion have in common? Well, in this case, they were all caught on our hidden camera traps in the Klaserie! Africa on Foot guests headed out on safari and came across a partially eaten impala carcass dangling from the branches of a tree – typical leopard behaviour! Knowing that this leopard might come back to feed on its kill, guides Greg and Kevin fastened a camera trap strategically to a tree, facing where all the action could potentially happen…
Sure enough, this morning we recovered the cameras (mercifully not eaten by a hyena – yes, this has happened before), and what we discovered was a surprise to us all! The camera trap automatically took still images whenever something moved in front of the lens, and there sure was a lot of movement. A female leopard (as yet, unidentified) jumped in and out of ‘her tree’ 8 times over 2 days, clearly climbing the tree to feed on the carcass and taking to the shady ground to sleep in between meals. A slender mongoose took itself up the tree in the hopes of feeding on the carcass, and finally, a Trilogy male lion clambered up and stole the kill!
The small, unexpected visitor to the carcass (creeping in while the leopard wasn’t looking) came in the form of a slender mongoose. This little carnivore sneakily climbed the tree and had a look around on two separate occasions, clearly looking for a piece of impala. Mongooses are known to prey on baby birds, scorpions, snakes, insects, and carrion, and this brave individual thought he would take his chances with a leopard’s leftovers.
We captured the leopard a number of times both during the day and at night, climbing the tree to feed intermittently on its kill. All seemed to be going as planned for the skilful female, until something much larger and less spotty clambered up its tree! One of the Trilogy male lions sniffed out the unprotected impala remains and promptly hauled its massive weight into the tree, dislodged the carcass, which dropped to the ground, and then climbed out of the tree and finished the leopard’s leftovers. Unfortunately, the leopard was clearly not finished with her meal, and we caught her climbing the tree one more time after the lion had been there. Unlucky, she climbed down one last time.
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