This was the utterly cruel moment a serval tried its best to escape the powerful jaws of a leopard, however, the leopard shows no mercy.
Predators in the wild often have to compete for food sources and territory. Leopards are far bigger in size than servals and have a better advantage when it comes to hunting. However, one will never fully understand why animals do what they do. Servals would be no competition for leopards in the wild, but this female obviously thought differently and took this serval out.
“My guests and I were on our first-morning safari in Masai Mara. After spotting some lions resting on rocks in the southern part of the reserve, we decided to make our way down to the Sand River bordering Serengeti in Tanzania.”
“Just before stopping for our breakfast, we spotted a female leopard on the hunt. At first, she spotted some reedbucks in the tall grass – but suddenly changed her mind and started stalking something in the dense bushes. We decided to give her enough space to ensure we did not reveal her presence – hoping that she would be successful.”
“Within a second she attacked her initial target, which was a serval. I only had a very short time to grab my camera to catch a glimpse of the hunt, before she managed to catch her prey. In the panic of the attack, we noticed that there was in fact another serval running away in the opposite direction of the leopard. It would seem that these 2 servals were potentially mating when the leopard attacked.”
“The female leopard caught the male serval by his neck after he fell down and never released him again. Thereafter the poor serval was in terrible agony for quite a bit. He tried his best to escape this predator, but sadly by the end had lost the battle in the powerful jaws of the leopard.”
“As difficult as it can be to witness Mother Nature’s cruelty, one must never try to intervene. Always respect the animals’ boundaries and try to give them enough space, so that you don’t have any influence on the sighting whatsoever.”
Leopard getting ready to enjoy her meal