When you work as a game tracker in one of South Africa’s premier national parks, you can become a little accustomed to seeing rare sightings and showdowns.
That’s not the case with Tarryn Rae, a 33-year-old field guide for Mankwe GAMETRACKERS, who is well aware that what she saw this past weekend in Pilanesberg is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting.
She told her story to Latest Sightings, in what has been described as a classic example of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”:
“On this particular day, I was out with a guest on a 6-hour game drive with lunch. My guest had mentioned to me that the top of his sightings wishlist for the day was a Leopard (Wishful thinking as I don’t have the best of luck with Leopard sightings).”
…“The game viewer ahead of me had gone to the area where the leopard had been seen and said there was no sign of it. So when we then stopped to look at two small warthogs for a brief second and while watching them, I mentioned to my guest that leopards love eating warthogs. I couldn’t even finish my sentence when my guest said “there’s a leopard!!” – sure as nuts, there was a massive warthog with a Leopard attached to it.”
There’s a twist in this tale, and we don’t want to give too much away, so let’s see the footage that Tarryn managed to capture:
Insert joke about cats having nine lives and this lucky warthog clearly having at least two.
Back to Tarryn’s account:
“The Leopards were so busy fighting they didn’t notice the very shocked, injured but determined warthog walking out from the bush and make its way towards a burrow. The two then chased each other up a hill and out of sight. They were seen around there a few times throughout the day probably looking for the warthog.”
“This was a first for me! I have never seen a leopard catch something let alone two leopards having a fight. It was really such an adrenaline rush and a feeling of gratitude to be in a position to witness this kind of interaction. It was sad to see the warthog fighting for its life and the squealing does get to you – but you realize that the leopard has to eat too. At the end on this day, it was the warthogs lucky day, if he survived his injuries.”
For the sake of the feelgood factor, let’s just assume the warthog did.
While you’re here, you may as well watch a bonus warthog video, showing a baby fighting with a Martial Eagle in the Kruger National Park.
This was filmed back in January:
[source:latestsightings]
