Look what the cat dragged…
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Photographer Dietmar Willuhn captured these striking (and slightly disturbing) images of a leopard with an unusual capture in Botswana’s Selinda Game Reserve in November 2012.
The unfortunate victim here is a caracal ( Caracal caracal ), a small and notoriously elusive cat found throughout Africa, as well as central and southwestern Asia. Although a formidable predator capable of attacking prey two or three times its size, a caracal is no match for an adult leopard, and the odds in this fight were firmly in the leopard’s favor.
Willuhn was on a guided safari when the tour group encountered a leopard and her cub. “We were able to follow the leopard for some time,” he told Africa Geographic . “The peaceful situation suddenly changed when the leopard left the small cub hiding in the bushes to continue alone. “The adult leopard went into hunting mode and the potential prey was not far away as some impalas were grazing nearby.”
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Leopards are opportunistic hunters and will eat anything that’s edible (even rhinos or bloated zebra carcasses), so while Willuhn and the rest of the tour group were anticipating the kill of an impala, the leopard had zeroed in on another stuff.
Shortly after disappearing into a patch of tall grass, the roars of a feline battle broke the silence. By the time the tour group gained a vantage point over the action, the fight was almost over: the leopard had dispatched the caracal with a swift bite to the neck.
Although it may surprise some to see a leopard stalking and killing a feline companion, this type of violence between cats is not uncommon. Superpredators sometimes confront rival species to fend off any competition for food, and rarely will a wild carnivore resist an easy meal (even if it means eliminating a member of the feline family).
In this case, the leopard probably encountered the caracal by chance and chose to take the opportunity to eat. “Leopards are predators that do not specialize in any prey,” explains Laurel EK Serieys, a carnivore biologist and coordinator of the Urban Caracal Project in Cape Town, South Africa. “As generalist predators, they [leopards] are also opportunistic predators: when they see an opportunity to eat and are hungry, they can take advantage of it.”
Although studies of Seriey caracals on the Cape Peninsula don’t have to deal with leopards, he has found evidence that they also dabble in feline cooking, sometimes preying on domestic cats.
It’s a cat-eat-cat world out there…
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
Image © Dietmar Willuhn
