Lee Fuller has been guiding picture safaris within the African bush for greater than twenty years. He’s captured loads of awe-inspiring wildlife encounters in that point, however he says {that a} leopard sighting he caught on digital camera a couple of weeks again is likely one of the most unimaginable issues he’s each had the privilege of witnessing. Fuller shared the video to Instagram on August 24—the identical day he filmed it.
“It was simply unbelievable,” Fuller tells Out of doors Life. “I’ve been doing safaris for 22 years and I’ve by no means seen something prefer it.”
The brief video reveals precisely what occurs when a leopard will get the drop on an impala. It begins with the impala grazing with its head down close to the bottom of a tree. Neither the antelope nor the viewer has any concept there’s a leopard on the prime of the tree till the large cat leaps down from the cover and lands proper on prime of the impala, driving it into the bottom.
The takedown occurs rapidly. Earlier than the antelope is aware of what hit him, the leopard bites down on the animal’s snout, wrapping its lengthy legs across the antelope’s neck. With its head completely immobilized, the frantic impala tries to run in circles and break away, however the leopard by no means loosens its grip. On the finish of the video, the 2 animals are tousled, the impala is out of breath, and it turns into clear sufficient that the leopard is having antelope steaks for its subsequent meal.
Fuller says he was guiding a married couple when he recorded the epic footage. They have been all staying at Mombo camp, which is situated in Botswana’s Okavongo Delta. The world-famous Delta represents one among Africa’s best pure sanctuaries, and its sprawling grasslands are dwelling to huge concentrations of wildlife. It’s an space that Fuller is aware of nicely because the proprietor and operator of Lee Fuller Safaris.
Nonetheless, in on a regular basis he’s spent within the Okavongo Delta, he says he’s by no means seen a leopard pull off this fashion of assault.
“I’ve by no means seen a leopard soar out of a tree like that earlier than,” Fuller says. “The [other] information who I used to be with has been in Mombo for 18 years, and he’s solely seen this occur as soon as earlier than. So yeah, it’s fairly uncommon footage I believe.”
