Field guide at Nkorho Bush lodge, Chene Wales-Baillie (27), was able to give her guests more of a surprise than even she bargained for when out on an evening drive in the Northern Sabi Sands.
She explained her story: “I heard on the radio that Tiyani (the one female who was up the tree with her kill.) So I responded to the sighting and just as we got there, the other young female arrived on the scene.”
“I told my guests I had a surprise for them but I didn’t expect it to be quite what it was.”
“I usually get very over excited when awesome sightings happen and this was definitely one of those but there was so much suspense! We didn’t know what was going to happen! It was very exciting to watch yet also quite shocking when all the fighting up the tree was busy happening. I kept hoping that none of our young females got too injured at the same time! You don’t get to see it in the video but as the one female fell from the tree, she fell into the frenzy of hyenas below and bounced out of them then ran off before the impala kill fell to those hungry mouths!”
“At the end, neither of the leopards had a meal and the leopard up the tree (Tiyani), looked a bit disappointed indeed. It was priceless to see the hyena walk away with a free meal as if it had worked so hard for it! You can hear all my thoughts and emotions in my crazy commentary haha…”