We have a number of people wanting to know more about the story behind the incredible photo on our homepage featuring a leopard attacking a Defassa waterbuck so we went behind the scenes to get all the details for the photographer – Phillipe Kress from Switzerland. Phillipe takes up the story from here: 

“All our cameras were packed away and ‘dust-proof’ as another long and warm day in Nanzhila was coming to an end with the sun about to set. Suddenly, someone shouted “Leopard!” I was only just quick enough to unpack the camera before the male leopard launched an attack on this rather large waterbuck. It is impossible to describe the speed of the attack but to try and put it into perspective, I shot the first 10 pictures (of which 5 feature below) in 6 seconds and with that, both the leopard and the waterbuck tumbled into a ditch out of view. We drove around for 10 minutes before incredibly, we found the waterbuck again – bleeding heavily and wounded but alive. We don’t know whether it survived the night…

What was interesting was that there was a second and smaller leopard hiding in the bushes a distance from the scene of the attack. As it was too dark to photograph, we can only surmise that this was perhaps a female who was either courting the male or trying to avoid him! Needless to say, we had a wonderful stay at Nanzhila where I managed to get a number of photographs of many other great sightings which alone would have justified our stay and we look forward to returning one day!” 

It just goes to show why you should never miss a game drive – you never know what could happen and be over in a flash around the next corner when out on safari!