Dayone male leopard and old Ndlevane male stand off!

After watching the progress of Dayone male on his bushbuck kill for 2 days we arrived late on the evening drive to some very interesting interaction.

His kill was almost finished and as we were driving towards the site of the kill we smelt that characteristic “popcorn” like odour of a fresh leopard marking! Was another leopard close by after smelling the rotting carcass?

Sure enough we arrived to see an old male lurking in the shadows…this old male (Ndlevane) started whining at Dayone and then backed off as the dominant Dayone came down! Dayone simply turned his back on the old male and walked off salivating!

It seems he gave the skinny starving old boy his leftovers and wasn‘t too concerned with kicking him out of his territory! This sparked a rather interesting behavioural debate with our guests, especially our regulars, Sepp and Megan who are here currently and know and follow all the leopards in the area very closely!

Why didn’t Dayone chase him off or try and kill him? Does he just tolerate the weak old male because he is not a threat? This surely seems the case…very interesting behaviour!

Enjoy the excellent footage captured by our guest John Hunt!
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