As we were leaving the camp, we heard the sounds of baboons alarming and quickly rushed to the riverbed to investigate. Although we missed the actual catch, we observed the aftermath of the incident, as the impala scattered in panic, and saw a leopard dragging its prey, with a wild dog giving chase.
The solitary wild dog, part of a pack of 11 adults and 10 pups, was yapping loudly as the leopard dragged the still-living impala from the riverbed to an open area. The leopard was able to chase off the wild dog, but the latter called for reinforcements, and soon the pack arrived on the scene. Just before the leopard could reach the safety of a tree with its meal, the wild dog pack scared the leopard up into the tree, leaving the impala on the ground. The impala attempted to escape, but was quickly brought down again by the wild dogs.
The wild dogs began feasting on their newly acquired meal, while two members of the pack kept the leopard at bay by jumping up and snarling from below. The sounds of feasting were soon interrupted by the arrival of two hungry hyenas, who quickly made their way through the wild dog pack to the meal. One hyena stood guard over the wild dogs, while the other enjoyed the impala all to itself. Moments later, a third hyena arrived on the scene.
The wild dogs retreated into the bush for a while, while a fourth hyena made its wayto the meal, only to be chased off by the other three. The wild dogs returned intermittently to try and reclaim their meal, but as time passed, there was less and less left of the carcass.
Later on, we learned that the wild dogs had intended to bring their pups to the kill after dealing with the leopard, but stopped on the road nearby once the hyenas arrived. There were a total of nine hyenas that had been tracking the dogs for the past week, and the previous day we had witnessed the dogs chase the hyenas away from a waterhole when the pups needed to drink.
The hyenas devoured every last shred of the impala, leaving only the head behind, which the largest female carried off to a nearby open field. The leopard eventually climbed down from the tree and followed the hyenas, hoping to scavenge any remaining scraps but ended up with nothing, just watching from a distance.
