50 Baboons Attack Leopard in a Case of Predator-Turned Prey [VIDEO]

50 baboons attacked a leopard in a rural part of South Africa, according to a local source last week. The incident was caught on video showing the baboon gang swarming on the big cat, in a case of predator-turned-prey. In addition, traffic was also halted as the incident also occurred in the middle of the road. After instigating the attack, the leopard seemed to regret provoking the primates.

The whereabouts of the leopard remains unclear, particularly if it is still alive or not. However, baboons are known for their tendency to be aggressive and their capability to harm or kill other animals, even threatening humans. While the recent incident may be bizarre, it does occur in the wild, especially in habitats where multiple species coexist.

Baboons Attack Leopard

(Photo : Photo by Dmitrii Zhodzishskii on Unsplash)

According to the YouTube channel Latest Sightings, which uploaded the video, a very brave leopard thought it can take down a troop of baboons but immediately realized it made a mistake. In the clip, it can be seen the leopard sneaking into the bushes before lunging into one of the baboons, but the latter's fellow primates immediately came to its aid.

The footage shows that there were several vehicles along the road, wherein one of them include 30-year-old Ricky da Fonseca, who reportedly sent the recording to the said YouTube channel and uploaded the video on Saturday, August 12.

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Baboon Aggressive Behavior

Being one of the largest monkey species on Earth, baboons are endemic in Africa and the Middle East, where they can be found in semi-arid habitats and tropical forests, according to the website AZ animals. Meanwhile, leopards can also be found in the said continent and region, as well as in Asia.

While leopards do not actively seek for baboons in the wild, their encounter with each other are still possible such as the recent incident in South Africa. In the past, leopards have been recorded attacking warthogs and other animals, including baboons. Yet, as seen in the baboon attack video, simians will retaliate to defend themselves.

In a study cited by the National Institutes of Health, researchers hypothesized that intrauterine growth restricted offspring or IUGR among baboons lead to higher rates of aggressive behavior than control offspring (CTR) with normal weight.

Wild Leopard Attacks

As ambush predators, wild leopards are one of the five big cats in the world and they are known to prey on non-human primates, other mammals, and even reptiles like crocodiles. Leopards have powerful bites and can mangle to death their prey, which are often bitten in their necks.

In 2007, a leopard was reported of killing a crocodile in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Although such incidents have occurred before, this is one of the rare instances where we see a glimpse of the wild cat's fearsome reputation. Still, there are also cases where crocodiles have killed leopards and other big cats such as lions lingering in shallow bodies of water in the wild.