Soaring through the air with her front legs spread like wings, these incredible pictures show the moment a pregnant leopard pounced on a warthog in Kenya. In the dramatic sequence of photos, the female predator almost seemed to be flying as she rounded on her helpless prey.
The leopard had been stalking the warthog in the Kenyan reserve and followed him out of sight into the bushes.
At that point, the two animals darted from the bush, with the leopard in hot pursuit of the wild pig.
Realising he could not outrun the leopard, he turned to confront her.
The creatures then came face-to-face in a tense two minute stand-off before the big cat pounced.
She flew metres into the air and soared above the warthog, before tackling him to the ground and finishing him off.
Photographer Peter Thompson captured the breathtaking action shots in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.
The 27-year-old, who runs a safari camp in the reserve, said: ‘The leopard began stalking the warthog and then she followed it into a nearby bush.
‘They were out of sight for a while and then they came shooting out towards out vehicle and the stand-off began.
‘Then the acrobatics began and the leopard killed the warthog, taking just a few seconds to strangle it.
‘The only movements from the leopard were the chase and then she circled the warthog right before she went in for the kill, jumping from a stand-still position.’
He added: ‘As soon as the warthog put some space between itself and the leopard, it turned to face the predator.
‘That’s what makes this whole story so amazing – if it was a lion instead of a leopard then nine times out of ten the warthog would have chased the lion away, but because of the leopard’s abilities it was almost as if it was toying with the warthog.’
The leopard is well known in the park, and has been named Bahati by locals – which means lucky.
Mr Thompson, who is originally from Australia, and his wife watched the fight from just 20 yards away.
He said: ‘My wife and I manage a camp in the Masai Mara, and this happened less than a kilometre from our entrance.
‘We were driving through to another camp when my wife spotted the leopard beneath a tree so we drove over and watched it.
At first we never thought something like this would happen – especially during the heat at this time of day at about 2pm.
‘My wife and I were the only ones driving around and we watched the whole scene with our jaws dropped.
‘We wanted the warthog to get away, but we also wanted the leopard to eat. There was so much adrenaline pumping through us to see something like that.
‘We went back to the camp and showed our resident guides and all of them said they had never seen anything like it before in all their years guiding in Masai Mara.’
He added: ‘The whole thing happened in absolute silence.
‘It was amazing and it makes you wonder what else happens out there in the middle of the day when no one is around.’
Daily Mail
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