South Luangwa But Olimba is a pro, and as the antelope on the right of the gully looked towards the sentinel who was snorting, she exploded from the channel and caught one of the impalas on the left! One of my guests, Don, captured an incredible series of the moment of impact. [The full sequence can be found on Edward’s website.]
With the leopard on top of the impala, I moved forward cautiously and we arrived just 10 seconds after the ambush. The suffocation was still in process and I advised some simple camera adjustments and encouraged everyone to fire away! I knew that the leopard would want to bring the kill back into the channel so I parked opposite her—rather than on the same side— and waited. And true enough, she dragged it towards us. The other antelope were standing and staring, so I advised that everyone should zoom out and include the wider scene which turned out to give some of the best shots of the event. With the antelope in the channel once more she could rest, hoping that the hyenas had not heard the commotion. But her work was only just beginning. Over the next half hour, she dragged it along the channel, up across the plain and into some thickets nearby. We left her to rest while we went for restorative coffee to settle our nerves. The last thing we wanted to do was to draw attention to her, knowing that she has a cub to feed and the hyenas would make light work of her hard-earned prize. We talked about how she would have to lift the carcass into a tree to avoid the hyenas stealing it, and we hoped that she would bring the cub to feed. Preferring not to draw any more attention to the scene, we left her and decided to return only in the after-
TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
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