The monitor lizard never had a chance against this leopard.
Africa has long been our bucket list of places to visit, even if it's just for a short drive through one of the National Parks or nature preserves in the area. Because there are so many wild animal species living there, one never knows what types of encounters they are going to see when they go there.
The tourists in this video come across a group of leopards just lazily lounging about on the roadside when a large monitor lizard wanders into the picture. These lizards are quite mean and willing to put up a fight, but it doesn't matter.
Watch as one of the big cats plays around with this monitor lizard like it's a catnip-filled pounce toy.
It seems no matter the size, cats seem to display many of the same habits. The movements of this leopard, the way it batted at the monitor lizard. It reminds us of an ordinary house cat playing with a mouse or bird it just caught in the yard. Just on a much larger scale. In the end, this big cat probably knew it didn't need to expend a lot of energy on this meal. The monitor wasn't going very far if it ran. All it had to do was wait for it to tire itself off and there was dinner.
We did get to see some of the monitor's defensive behaviors on display here. It is not uncommon for them to whip their tails at an attacker like you saw here. Unfortunately for this lizard, it was too little too late.
However, that is just the way things go in Africa's wild spaces. You are either the hunter or one of the hunted and even the slightest mistake can lead to your downfall. It may be hard to watch, but that's just the way nature operates.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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