This female leopard and her three cubs have just brought down a wildebeest in the early dawn. The boldest of the three cubs was determined to give his mother a hand! The mother leopard dragged the kill the better part of a mile to a tree with some nearby rocks. We watched the leopard and her cubs for the next three days while they feasted.
I owe a special thanks to our remarkable guide Saidi Kotoku. We were watching a group of hyenas and vultures fighting in the early dawn er the last remnants of a buffalo kill, when Saidi heard the vervets and birds in a stand of trees over a mile away warning that a leopard was hunting in the area. We reached the hunting leopard at the very moment she brought down the wildebeest.
I took the image with a Canon 7D Mark II with EF 100 - 400 f/4.5 - 5.6 IS II USM lens. The exposure settings were 135 mm, 1/200, f/5.0, ISO 400, hand-held.
Quite an amazing Sighting and image
Thanks Karanja!
We were very fortunate to be out that morning with one of the best guides in Tanzania, Saidi Kotoku.
We were watching a group of hyenas and vultures fighting over the last remnants of a buffalo kill, when Saidi heard the vervets and birds in a stand of trees over a mile away warning that a leopard was hunting in the area.
We immediately left the hyenas behind, and headed at full speed for the area where Saidi expected to find the leopard.
We got there just in time to see her finish the wildebeest, and followed her as she dragged it back to her lair. The mother leopard and her three cubs made quite a parade!