Orion‘s Kill

The stars must have aligned for us, as this was an afternoon to remember. This photo of Orion (above) with his young adult Wildebeest kill, was taken, toward the end of it all.

Having been at the Pilanesberg Centre earlier in the afternoon, watching some lions across the way, when the rumours of a leopard in a tree on the way to Mankwe hide had started surfacing. We are not in the habit of chasing sightings, but we had really wanted to see a Leopard so we headed off in a puff of… fairy dust ☺️. Excited to still find him still in his tree we jostled with all the onlookers for a view, but that was short lived. He soon got up, jumped down the tree and walked across the road in front of us before heading into the long grass and disappearing. We searched for a while, but he was gone. We were happy that we had seen him and headed off to Red Rocks for the obligatory, “hope to spot a leopard at sunset on a rock” drive by. Finding nothing, we turned round and headed back toward Bakgatla, our campsight during our stay in the park.

It was strange as we encountered little to no traffic on our trip back, but then, there It was! Just before Tshukuku Drive, as we rounded a bend, Orion had just taken down this Wildebeest. It must have happened split seconds before we got there as the wildebeest was fighting for its life. We think it took about 7-10 minutes before the Gnu breathed its last breath (we lost track of time in all the excitement).

In relation to the Leopard, it was a large one and Orion had to hold on for dear life. With his grip on its throat he did not let go until the job was done. He then proceeded to try and pull it to some sort of cover, managing just a couple meters at a time, before having to take a rest again. Nervously scanning the bush around him as he drags, bites and rests, he needed to be so careful that he would not lose his hard fought-for dinner to the larger predators in the area.

We were so lucky that we had come from red rocks as we were the first car to arrive from that side as all the rest had been following him from the other side. With a perfect view, we sat and enjoyed the sunset, ok, firing away with our Canons, but wow. 20 yards from the car in the open, right there in front of us. What a privilege to actually see this unfold. This was a sighting of a life time and the excitement around us was evidence of that. We stayed as long as we could before heading off back to camp.

Speaking to some voluntary rangers during the first sighting, we had found out his name was Orion, he had just left his mother and was looking for his own territory and hence his willingness to be seen. He was also clearly very hungry and did not care to hide while he hunted. We later heard and saw that after we had left him the first time he had reappeared near the kill and used the cars as camouflage to hunt down the Wildebeest. Apparently he was still there the next morning, having successfully eaten his share and having fought off the Brown Hyenas overnight. By mid morning the bush clean-up crew had been there and no evidence of the day before existed, except for our memories and the photos we took.

Pilanesberg just continues to deliver… Thank you.