We had spent an unsuccessful morning searching for the Mashaba female leopard when we received a radio call from ranger Lucien Beaumont informing us that he had found the Vomba female leopard, Mashaba’s mother, heading North towards the Sand River.
The Vomba female was a leopard with an instantly recognisable rich golden coat. She spent much of her life around the Londolozi Camps.
The Vomba Female as we first sighted her walking north towards the Sand River.
As mentioned in Adam Bannister’s post last week, Vomba can be a difficult leopard to find, as she spends so much of her time in and around the palm thickets and Motumi trees of the Sand River. We weren’t far away from where Lucien was, so we decided to move quickly towards his position before the leopard disappeared into the dense riverine vegetation.
All it took was a subtle movement of the duikers legs through the bush. The Vomba female tensed her body before pressing it slowly to the ground. These big cats are very opportunistic and will immediately go into a stalking mode if they sense there is a chance to catch prey.
Within ten minutes of us arriving at the scene, after having watched Vomba make her way across some clearings, posing wonderfully in the morning light, she spotted something moving in the guarri thickets ahead of her and went into a classic stalk position. We could see some small antelope legs moving on the other side of the guarris, but couldn’t make out what it was. Moving in complete silence, Vomba edged closer, until BAM! she was off!
Despite being just the hindquarters of the Vomba female, one can gain a real sense of the speed and intensity that she propelled herself forward with.
She bounded into the thickets from one side, we heard commotion, and a second or two later, a duiker came careering out of the thicket on the other side, fleeing for its life, straight towards our vehicle! Vomba never missed a beat, hurtling down upon it in great leaping strides. The duiker nearly escaped, but unluckily what appeared to be an open route to freedom had a couple of flimsy Sandpaper Raisin bushes in the way, one of which the duiker crashed into, tripping it and sending it tumbling into the dust.
The leopard ploughed straight through the same branches, diving onto her prey and flattening its vain attempt to recover and make good its escape. The duiker’s squeals were short-lived, as Vomba’s powerful jaws and long, viciously sharp canines pierced its windpipe, cutting off its air-supply and mercifully ending its suffering.
While our pulses raced, the leopard picked up the carcass and moved to a shady spot to begin feeding.
Seeing a kill take place is in many ways the Holy Grail of wildlife sightings. To see one in broad daylight, right next to us, and executed by one of Londolozi’s most beautiful leopards, was truly incredible.
Written by James Tyrrell
Filmed by: Carlos Colaco (Londolozi Guest)
Photographed by: Helena Colaco (Londolozi Guest)
She reminds me of Yambilu Jordaan with her head shape and the curl in her tail, does anyone know if they were related at all ?
Hi Rosie, you can refer to this family tree to find out more about their potential relation. At present this is as much as we know about the Vomba Female’s relatives – http://www.londolozi.com/leopards/leopards-of-londolozi/sunsetbend-lineage/
Thanks for your comments, rich
Wow …..INSANE speed! Great footage and pictures Carlos and Helena. Exceptionally well written Ranger James 😉
Amazing footage….is she the Vomba Female that just had the cub on the previous post?
If so now she has food for her & her Cub…..wonderful!!
Hi Tammy, yes it is the one and only Vomba female 🙂 and yes she did share some of the remains of the duiker with her cub. Thanks for your comments. rich
Amazing shots and video……augmented by excellent writing. Thanks for building up the tension so well James.
Cindy
It was UNIQUE!
Londolozi is on of our best memories.
Thanks James for the wonderful days.
All the best for all staff.
Helena and Carlos Colaço
Brilliant James!
She is an AMAZING mama!! Love her!!
Wow. Didn’t realize I was holding my breath! Amazing, great video , pictures and text! Thanks so much to you all.
Wow, what an experience! She did that so quickly and so efficiently. Thanks for the posting Rich.
a lerpord was amazing it bite is much more powerful than a human.
Amazing and yet disturbing. I know that this is nature and of course the leopard must eat, she is beautiful and quick in her kill and yet the screams of the duiker have haunted me since I saw the video. Mental note: do not watch kill video in the future, and when on safari at Londolozi put head under jacket or blanket and hold ears tightly if animal is going in for the kill.
JT I thought you said you’d stopped responding so much?
U guys used to set a bad example! 😉 Seems the one time I do it, we got lucky…