I left the Lower Sabie Rest Camp and headed towards Crocodile Bridge on the main road. After about 3 km into my drive I came across a male leopard walking in the road. The leopard continued on his morning walk and then casually veered off the road into the bush. I decided to wait and see if the leopard would reappear.

Soon after, a porcupine wandered out from the bush. The leopard caught scent of the porcupine and came out of the bush and was now on the porcupine’s trail.

The leopard tried to attack while the porcupine defended himself with its quills. This scene of the leopard attacking the porcupine went on for about an hour until eventually the leopard realised that he could not defeat this determined porcupine and made his way back into the bush.

© Text and images by Craig Schraibman

* The original copy in this blog read: "The leopard continued to try and attack the porcupine while the porcupine was defending himself by shooting out quills at the leopard." This copy has since been amended as porcupines do not shoot their quills but instead back into the offending party where they raise their quills to present a formidable image.

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