Lucky leopard goes fishing

Posted on 30 October 2019

Image: Tayla McCurdy/Latest Sightings

A male leopard at the Kruger National Park fancied a fishy dish for his supper, and a group of visitors to the park captured footage of the leopard making his kill.

The catch of the day was a sharp tooth catfish, not uncommon in the Kruger, and also known as barbel. A group of visitors driving along the Mphongolo Loop (S56) in the northern parts of the Park noticed something fishy was going on, and one Tayla McCurdy sent her footage to safari sightings site, LatestSightings.com, and described the sighting.

‘The leopard was nervous and disappeared below the embankment where we could no longer see him but we waited, knowing that this is an easy meal but not knowing if the leopard would go for it,’ McCurdy said. ‘After 10 minutes the leopard returned, unable to resist the temptation of the big fish’, she added.

The leopard tentatively approached the small pool of fish, hesitating and slightly clumsy while calculating the kill at the edge of the puddle-pool.

After a struggle to get a grip on the slippery, writhing fish, the leopard finally succeeded and skulked off with his catch.

“This was a very exciting sighting,’ McCurdy added. ‘I was surprised at the size of the barbel, especially closer to the end where we saw the leopard almost tripping over the barbel as it tried to carry it to the tree! This was a fun experience and definitely not something you see every day.’

The leopard must’ve taken a liking to the fish, as the footage also shows the same leopard dragging another catfish along the next morning, wet and covered in mud.

Featured image: Screenshot via Tayla McCurdy/Latest Sightings

Also watch:

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