May 12, 2015
Leopard Hunt, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

The following series of images is from a thrilling encounter with a Leopard (Panthera pardus) in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. It began as a typical, and not-so-exciting, encounter with the leopard sleeping in a tree late in the morning. Because there was decent cloud cover to diffuse the light, we waited and watched and eventually had our picnic lunch. Things started to get exciting when a lone Wildebeest or Brindled Gnu (Connochaetes taurinus) mother and calf walked within about 1/4 mile (400 m) of the leopard, but the leopard was fast asleep and the wildebeest disappeared over a small hill. Maybe half an hour later, the same (?) wildebeest and calf came back over the hill and this time the leopard saw them. :) After he determined that the probability of a kill was high, he climbed down from the tree and leapt to the ground.

We quickly crossed to the other side of the dry stream and followed the leopard from a safe distance as he started to close the distance to the wildebeest calf. We dropped back as he entered stalking mode and kept our distance as to not interfere with the final chase.

After the leopard took down the wildebeest calf, we rushed to get close to the scene of the kill and were able to photograph the leopard carrying the dead wildebeest calf towards another tree.

The encounter ended as the leopard carried the wildebeest calf up into the tree to keep it away from hyenas and lions.