On a sunny summer day this male leopard was resting in the grass at the bottom of a tree. Up in the tree he had stashed his kill. He was lying on his side, looking like he was sleeping.
A female leopard was approaching from behind, thoughtful of every single step, stalking closer to the tree. Out of the high grass she jumped up into the tree aiming at the kill. The male leopard jumped from his comfortable sleeping position into the tree in a split second, chasing the female into the tree top. There was a lot of growling from the male towards the female, but he choose to stay with his kill and not follow the female to the tree top.
The female was cornered in the treetop and very stressed, yet she pulled all her strength together and made a spirited dash down the tree passed the kill and male leopard to the ground and managed to snatch a leg from the kill as well along the way.
While all this unfolded in the tree a hyena was watching from the ground, waiting for her moment.
When the male leopard realised that the female had escaped with a piece of his kill, he angrily reshuffled his kill in the tree and missed a branch. The kill fell to the ground and the hyena made off with it. The male leopard stood in the tree looking puzzled that he ended up loosing his kill.
Female leopards normally don’t try to steal the kill of a male leopard. This female was old and struggling to hunt for herself. She and the male knew each other well, his territory was overlapping hers and he was the father of her daughter’s cubs. She probably counted on the family ties and he probably was more playing with the situation, than responding as forcefully as he could, it was about food after all.
