Stories from behind the scenes - Half Tail with killed impala - 2/1997

February 1997. I have seen Half Tail and her daughter Zawadi every day. These days overcrowding didn´t use to be the huge problem it is today. Not yet...

I could drive the area around Leopard Gorge for hours without meeting another vehicle. And I used to spend all day close to my beloved leopards.

One morning I found Half Tail limping because of an injured left frontpaw. Obviously she had killed an impala last night and had brought him onto a small acacia tree. Now she climbed the acacia regardless her injury and regardless the tree´s thornes and pulled the carcass down to the ground using all her power and body weight. She carried it about 100 meters to one of the huge fig trees of Leopard Gorge, then she climbed the fig tree with the dead impala in her mouth effortlessly and now could feed on the carcass comfortably and safely. Later that day also Half Tail´s daughter Zawadi arrived to secure her share of the prey.