Pictured: amazing moment leopard loses fight with prickly porcupine

[Donna]

A playful leopard was left with sore paws and his tail between his legs after losing a battle of wits to a prickly porcupine.

The leopard tried all his hunting techniques to catch the rodent but was given the needle by his spikey prey.

The two-year-old male leopard tried pouncing on the porcupine from above, prodding him and trying to roll him over, but to no avail.

Undeterred, the furry feline even tried extending a gentle paw as the porcupine shook its spikes ferociously.

After 25 minutes and several painful spines in his paws, the big cat was forced to accept defeat and retreat.

The incredible moment was captured on camera by professional wildlife photographer Shem Compion in the Mashatu Game reserve, Botswana.

The pictures were taken during a photography wildlife safari he was leading, as part of his business C4 Images and Safaris.

The 33 year-old, who lives in South Africa, said: "Excitement hardly describes my feelings - it was one of my top wildlife sightings ever.

"We saw this beautiful leopard lounging on a log and then a few moments later a porcupine walked nearby and started nibbling some roots.

"Suddenly, this relaxed leopard spotted the porcupine and sprang on to high alert, watching the rodent before getting up to stalk him."

He continued: "From then on it was full adrenaline. The leopard spent 25 minutes trying to touch the porcupine and get to him.

"The porcupine kept pushing his quills towards the cat and rattling them in a very frightening manner - the leopard would jump up in shock.

"He tried all sorts of things to get under the porcupine but nothing was working and eventually he gave up and lay down."

He added: "There's a rule in the bush which says 'only food runs' so the porcupine knew to stick around until the leopard had walked away so it could get water from a pool.

"The poor porcupine re-gathered some of his wits while I looked around for a gin and tonic to calm my nerves.

"It went from tension to suspense, pain, torment and eventually relief. It was a truly incredible sight."

[Annette]

 

[valhalla]

Wow!  What an amazing encounter!

Annette - in addition to the birds and squirrels, we are now feeding the bunnies!  Olafsen's Wild Kingdom here