Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Leopards visit in dikdik territory

  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    Amazingly great capture of gorgeous cats! 😃
    Of course, I too became a bit worried about the dikdiks and went through collections. To our relief, I may have found hopefully enough evidence that they survived. First capture is from almost following day:
    https://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG001kwhi and here 2 more:
    https://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG001nkfj and https://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG001hnqo from few days later. Still, I hope these magnificent cats found themselves a good meal somewhere else. 😃

    Posted

  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to maricksu's comment.

    This shows how sentimental we can be about animals . The leopard has to kill to feed itself and the cub, but so long as it is not "our" dik-diks everything is alright 😃

    Posted

  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    Thank you Tillydad ! 😃 Well said and I understand the point completely. 😃 Usually always I am on side of cats in these things, because they have to work really hard to get their meals. In this case affected me that I have read that dikdiks are almost monogamous. And I have to admit, it is hard to avoid being sentimental when feeling almost being part of their lives in this wonderful journey of ID 😃 But mostly this was my natural curiosity to try to find out what might have happened. 😃

    Posted

  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator in response to tillydad's comment.

    My rare lapse into sentimentality arises from having reared an orphan dikdik. But leopard is one of my very favorite animals too. So my loyalties are divided. In some places leopards manage to survive by eating domestic dogs, as do coyotes in my neighborhood....I applaud their resourcefulness, but many don't share my opinion 😛

    Posted

  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    It is an emotional minefield,@maricksu and @davidbygott, and I was just raising the issue because it shows how far removed many people are from the fact that "nature is red in tooth and claw ".

    Owning a labrador, Tilly, does make me grateful that I do not live in area that has wild leopards or coyotes, as I would be very emotional and sentimental if she were to be devoured by one !! This just reinforces the fact that it is very difficult to always remain neutral about predators and prey 😃

    Posted

  • maricksu by maricksu moderator

    Thank you both David and Tillydad for sharing your thoughts and memories! I agree with you both completely ! 😃

    Posted