The next morning, we returned to the three-leopard site, but the impala was mostly gone (presumably eaten). While we saw the mother leopard munching on the leftovers, the cubs were someplace else, so it didn’t have the panache of the prior evening. Not that momma leapord wasn't fairly interesting on her own
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We’d seen a dead buffalo returning to the camp the prior evening; it seemed like it had died of natural causes, because it was untouched, with a hyena circling it at a distance trying to determine if it was really dead or not. Fanwell suggested it would probably be more lively now that scavengers had a chance to zero in on it. So we drove over to take a look.
Oh. My. God.
We could see the circling buzzards from a long distance away, but it couldn't prepare us for what we found at the site.
It was like nothing we’ve seen before, even on national geographic. By the time we got there, a lot of the hind quarters were already gone (we saw one hyena running away with a belly so full it was almost dragging on the ground). But there was still most of the buffalo left. That and perhaps fifty vultures and two hyenas that were tearing into the carcass like a school of piranhas.
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In under twenty minutes a thousand pound buffalo carcass was nothing but a skeleton and most of the scavengers dispersed. Fanwell told us there were three different kind of vultures present (out of seven total kinds in Zambia). While the White Headed Vulture was fairly distinctive, the other two were mostly differentiated by their size. Fanwell explained that the smaller vultures, who had stayed back from the carcass, would move in now because their smaller, sharper beaks could get what little meat was between the buffalo's ribs and other bones. We left as they were closing in.
Africa was beautiful but savage.
From here, you can jump to our last stand-alone story from Zambia (Last time's the charm) or you can look at a large number of photos from six days of Safaris.