This unexpected event took place in a private home within a reserve that borders the Kruger National Park.
One early morning a very old male leopard by the name of “one-eye” decided to explore a bit further in search of food than he normally did. Instead of looking for animals to hunt in the bush, he obviously thought he chances of catching something would be better in the residence of one of the local game rangers. The ranger’s wife who was home at the time, left the house for 2 minutes and upon returning was absolutely shocked to see a leopard walking out of the house with one of their two pet bull terriers in its mouth! So in a space of just 2 minutes the leopard had walked into their home, killed both of their bull terriers and was on his way out to enjoy his meal elsewhere. The room where the dogs were killed was the same room where the owner’s two-year-old baby normally slept. Fortunately for them the baby was not in the room at the time. Unfortunately the leopard was destroyed as they couldn’t take the chance of the leopard coming back to look for more.
This just goes to show you just how powerful and lethal a leopard really is, even if it is old.
This story may sound bizarre or even difficult to believe. Believe it or not but it is VERY TRUE.
One of the duties as a game ranger in most lodges is to knock on the guests’ room doors to wake them up for the early morning game drive. Normally you don’t come across any dangerous animals when doing the wake-up but every once in a while you’ll come across an un-welcomed visitor, especially if there is no electric fence around the lodge.
It was summer time and we were waking the guests up at 05:00. At that time of the morning you still needed to walk with a torch (flash-light), as it was still a bit dark. The rangers use to take turns to do the wake-ups and it was Mike’s turn this time.
Mike had woken up two of the rooms already and was on his way to wake up the rest of the lodge. He was still half asleep himself, but not for long as when approached the main lodge building a huge Elephant bull came charging out towards him! Mike shouted out at the Elephant. Fortunately it stopped charging and then turned around and walked out of the Lodge.
The last two rooms at the lodge were always an adventure to walk too as you had to cross over a small bridge through some thick vegetation to get to them. Just as Mike was about to walk onto the bridge a Leopard came charging out at him! Mike started shouting again, loud enough to chase the Leopard off. At this stage Mike was very much awake.
Eventually he managed to knock on the last guests’ door. The guests were awake already and when they heard the knock they quickly opened up and told Mike that they had seen a Lioness outside their room just minutes earlier. Mike then told them that it must have been a Leopard as he had just seen one.
The guests closed the door and as Mike started walking off, a Lioness came charging out straight towards him! She stopped about 10 meters in front of him. She just stood there growling at him and then suddenly out of the dark came the Leopard. The Leopard stopped about 7 meters to Mikes’ right side also growling as well. Fortunately Mike had a weapon, he then pointed it at the Lioness, started shouting and ran straight towards her. Luckily that was enough to chase both the Lioness and the Leopard away.
Later that morning, after game drive the guests told me about their adventure that morning with the Lioness and the Leopard.
At about 04:30 they heard the sound of an Impala (antelope) outside their room. It sounded like something was killing it. The husband then got up to look through the window to see what was happening. It was the Leopard and it had just killed the Impala. With all the noise that the Impala had made it had attracted the interest of the Lioness. The Lioness came sprinting in and chased the Leopard off the now dead Impala.
The Lioness then saw the guest staring through the window at her, and with that she then charged at him, stopping right outside the window! She then turned around and went back to the Impala to start feasting.
