"You never see the leopard that gets you"

[sandbender]

As this footage will show....

[video=youtube;JEhjFIufQOg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEhjFIufQOg[/video]

...the common response to tourists who are getting the lecture on 'what to do when faced with elephants, lions, buffalo etc.' and one asks "what about leopards?"

"You never see the leopard that gets you".

Enjoy

Edited to add:

It is common for the drivers to bring their passengers right up to the animals, in this case I think it would have been so much better if they'd just stayed put and used longer lenses.

 

[Pterodaktyl]

Amazing footage - as far as I can tell the leopard parted company with the tree some 20' above the ground and was free-falling after that - must be a phenomenal amount of force, both applied to the prey and absorbed by the leopard itself!

 

[woodsorrel]

Wow! That was impressive. Thanks for posting the video, sandbender.

I have been fortunate to track both leopard and lions in the wild. I have great respect for these beautiful and powerful creatures.

Where I live we have mountain lions (Puma concolor). Unlike in Africa, healthy mountain lions do not hunt humans. This is because humans and mountain lions did not co-evolve. Humans arrived much later. As a result, the lions do not perceive humans as prey (thank goodness!).

However, we just had an incident here that unnerved me a bit. A six-year-old boy was attacked while hiking with his family. The group was walking on a trail that I frequently hike solo in the morning hours. The lion dragged the boy into the bushes before his father and another adult male succeeded in scaring the animal away.

Here are the details if you are interested: Mountain Lion Attacks Six Year Old Boy

It makes me wonder if I have been a bit overconfident when it comes to hiking alone in mountain lion country. I stand about 160 cm tall...

- Woodsorrel

 

[swotty]

Blimey..that's quick!

 

[bushcraftkid2001]

Glad I'm not an antelope.

 

[John Fenna]

On one of my African expeds we were stalked by a Leopard and the female teacher in the group refused to go to the loo (outdoor longdrop about 100m from camp) after dusk ... perhaps she was not as paranoid as I thought....

 

[sandbender]

On one of my African expeds we were stalked by a Leopard and the female teacher in the group refused to go to the loo (outdoor longdrop about 100m from camp) after dusk ... perhaps she was not as paranoid as I thought....

I know how she felt. On a drive through Namibia one of our camps was in small valley and again the loo was a good distance from the camp. I went out there with the sun just beginning to set and about ten minutes later because we were in a steep sided valley it was already very dark.

I admit to being a little nervous on the walk/jog back to camp.

 

[Leigh Robinson]

That was epic! Reinforces the hunter having a high seat. Few look up for danger!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hammock_man]

Just dropped in for dinner !!!!

 

[21st century pict]

I remember reading this somewhere,
( If the Lion had the heart of a Leopard no one would hunt lions).

 

[Silverback 1]

Absolutely incredible, didn't even realise they hunted like that, thanks for posting.