BABOONS VS. LEOPARD

The story of what happened when a troop of baboons held a female leopard hostage in a tree . . . for HOURS!

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

It was a normal afternoon game drive in the Lower Zambezi. We stopped first to watch a small herd of elephants enjoying an afternoon snack before we headed off to scoot around the neighbouring area to see what we could find amongst the trees.

As we were driving, we became aware of some distinct alarm calls up ahead. Our guide, Rich, was immediately intrigued and said he would head over and check out what was going on.

As we got closer, we observed a large troop of baboons dotted around the ground and up in the surrounding tree branches. It’s not unusual for baboons to squabble and shout at each other, however, these noises were more distinct predator distress calls.

Rich took note of the behaviours he could see, particularly the fact that several of the baboons on the ground were all looking up at a specific spot in the tree. Following their eyeline upwards, he scoured his gaze across the leafy canopy high up in the tree and caught a glimpse of a leopard. With lots of branches and shadows to contend with, it was challenging to see much from the angle we were at, so he drove a wide circle around to the other side to get a slightly better view.

The behaviour we observed was fascinating.

Photo Credit: (c) ​T J Allen Art

Over a third of the baboon troop were scattered among the tree branches with a clear dominant male heading up the battle. Although there were a couple of metres between the nearest baboons and the leopard, their forceful, combative stances were effectively pushing her to the very top of the tree into the most precarious and spindly of branches. Every time she moved even a centimetre to get her balance she was met with wild, dominant aggression and intense vocal rage.

They were angry.

The strength of their fury and intimidating screeching was horrible to witness. It was like watching bullies’ gang up in force against one victim.

All would settle for a few minutes and then the wrath of shouting, shaking of branches and forceful movements forward would start again. Rich’s guess was that they wanted her to fall out of the tree to her death so that they had one less predator to worry about.

Looking through my binoculars, I could see that she was trying to nestle in the criss-crossing fork of a tree branch (not the image captured above). She had all four paws in a small area with her back legs higher than her front legs. It looked extremely uncomfortable and decidedly dodgy. She kept looking around, assessing her surroundings. It was clear she wanted to change position but was forced to remain where she was.

This interaction between quiet tension and loud movement went on for a long time. Rich predicted that the stand-off would only be broken by the fading light because the baboons would be compelled to retreat to their nighttime roost. As time ticked on, his prediction came true.

The baboons on the ground started to move off slowly whilst the ones in the tree remained stern and aggressive. One by one, the baboons in the outer branches gradually edged their way down the tree to slink after the rest of the troop. There were still a couple of steadfast ones that stayed, including the large dominant male. He was still acting like a boxer ready for a knockout fight!

As the light dimmed, he was the last to retreat but only a metre or so at a time. At each new branch further down the tree, he would still give a booming set of yells or high-pitched shriek, venting his outrage. Even when he was on the ground, he still took an age to sulkily move away.

Eventually, with a sigh of relief and knowing the coast was clear, I was expecting the leopard to quickly descend the tree and run away from the area as quickly as possible. However, it took her just shy of twenty minutes to even make the first move on to a lower branch. Her patience and caution were remarkable. She took it in stages to make her way down the tree, stopping at strategic spots to make sure the baboons were definitely not going to come back.

Photo Credit: (c) ​T J Allen Art

The remarkable part of this story is that the whole narrative only made proper sense when the leopard finally made it on to the ground.

In the now distinctly shadowy light, she moved around the base of the tree to a bush positioned at the back. To our surprise, she proceeded to lie down and start eating! Yes, it transpires that her snack was a baby baboon.

Aha! Now it all makes sense.

With the full picture revealed, it’s much easier to properly understand the behaviour of the baboons. With the killing of a baby, no wonder ‘Mr Daddy’ baboon was acting like King Kong.

This is why safari is so fascinating. Life out in the African bush is always full of surprises and new things to discover.

*The photographs I’ve included are not great, however, I wanted to share images of the scenes I witnessed to help aid your imagination of the scenario.