“One June afternoon just after 1pm, on our way from Kalahari Tented Camp to Grootkolk, we had been following leopard spoor heading north near Kwang waterhole. The spoor turned from the road down towards the waterhole and then disappeared. 

At the Kwang waterhole we sat for a brief while watching springbok and oryx (gemsbok) gathered around the waterhole. They all appeared relaxed, so we were just about to leave when my partner suddenly shouted: "Leopard!"

The leopard (in the tree at the waterhole) must have used our arrival to distract the springbok around the waterhole and jumped out of the tree on top of its prey.

In a few minutes the springbok was dead and the leopard dragged it across the road and disappeared into the grass. We were the only car at the waterhole and in just over five minutes it was all over and all the other oryx and springbok carried on as if nothing had happened...” 

Photo story: Craig Vedders