What happens when a leopard is left alone with a baby impala will shock you

Cape Town – There has been an unbelievable sighting of a leopard nurturing a baby impala at Sabi Sands Reserve, on the borders of the Kruger National Park. 

A Sabi ranger first spotted the leopard chasing a herd of impala and followed it. The ranger explains that when impala realise they are under attack, they send out a warning call to their herd and immediately disperse. However when this took place, the baby impala was left behind, reports.

At first Patti the ranger wishes the impala will escape its inevitable death, but what transpires over the next half hour shocked everyone.

The leopard and impala, left alone in the bush, proceed to play a game of cat and mouse, with the leopard edging closer to the infant, which weakly wobbles across the ground trying to move away from its new ‘friend’.

What makes this moment so unique is that the leopard does not attempt to kill the impala. As time passes, the two become accustomed to each other and opt to share a patch of shade under a tree, with the impala gingerly sticking its tiny head into the leopards face.

By the time the onlookers had to leave, “The leopard was nudging and licking the lamb!” explained Patti.

In a similar incidents, a lioness in Tsavo was spotted adopting an oryx as her own, and Legadema the leopardess at Mombo – looked after a baby baboon, reports Kruger Sightings.

Sadly in this incident, ranger Patti left the scene suspecting the female leopard was slowly trying to lure her young ‘sub-adult’ cubs to the baby impala to teach them how to hunt.