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 immediately left the hyenas behind, and headed at full speed for the area where we hoped 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! l
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 312 mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000, hand-held.
Very good timing and framing. Leopard eyes are scary. The photo shows its drama, harshness of life and death.
Congratulations my liked.
Thanks Mariano!
I'm glad you liked the picture.
She made it clear she was not going to easily surrender this kill!
Anyone who spends time in Africa is awed by the grandeur and and beauty of the big cats, but these beautiful animals are also some of the world's most effective predators. Every day they have to hunt, and they have to be successful, or their own cubs will starve. (In this case, three amazingly cute and rambunctious little cubs.) The harshness is part of the "Circle of life," but it's not the sanitized version you see in a Walt Disney movie!
Thanks again for your comment.
Best regards,
Bob Henderson