Īs the lions gorged below, the leopard put her superior climbing skills to use: she tightroped her way overhead to an adjacent tree, and the safety beyond. Most fully grown adults will at least attempt easily accessible branches. Young lions will often scale trees when they play (being lighter helps), and prides in certain parts of Africa are famous for it. While lions are not known for their tree-climbing abilities, the behaviour isn't as rare as you'd think. Some moments later, the second – and younger – lioness joined her accomplice in the branches, hoping to score a few scraps from the carcass. The leopard may have evaded danger, but it also forfeited her hard-earned meal, which was quickly commandeered by the bigger cat. 'Due to her weight and size and therefore much more limited climbing ability, the lioness wasn't able to climb as high as the leopard, found safety up in the thinnest branches,' she recalls. But what happened next came as a surprise to Attenborough: intent on getting her paws on the spoils stashed in the tree, one of the lionesses started to climb. Luckily for this dozing mother, rustling footfalls gave the lions away, allowing the smaller cat just enough time to leap for the safety of the tree. During her years as a Londolozi ranger, she's seen numerous cat-on-cat attacks, and several Londolozi leopards have died in violent clashes with their bigger kin. 'Lions pose a very real threat to leopards,' explains Attenborough. Pack animals like wild dogs and hyenas, whose strength comes from numbers, often chase the cats off their kills. Their relatively small size and solitary habits bump leopards down a few rungs on the predator hierarchy of the African bush. 'We love to see big cats interact with one another but when these situations occur, they are also vulnerable to injury, something none of us would ever wish on an animal.' 'There are times in the bush where one feels hugely conflicting emotions,' writes Attenborough over at the Londolozi blog.

The approaching lions could only mean trouble. The spotted cat had been resting at the base of a tree, her youngster roaming nearby and an impala meal stashed in the branches above. Ranger Amy Attenborough and her tourist group had been observing a well-known leopard female and her cub when word reached them of two local lionesses heading their way.

Disney nature predator vs prey