A video showing a baby goose in the jaws of a leopard seemed to suggest the footage was heading toward a sad ending for the little bird. But the gosling had a clever trick up its feathers. It played dead.
The video was captured by safari guide Benji Solms of the Serondella Game Lodge in South Africa and was shared by Latest Sightings.
A few baby geese appeared at one end of a dry river bed where a leopard and its cub had been feeding on a kill. The tour group watched for some time as the cub played up and down the river sand.
“The cub noticed the movement, but luckily for the little goslings, they went into thicker bush,” Solms told Latest Sightings. “One gosling then decided to come out into the open, and that’s when the leopard went for it.”
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The baby goose ran from the leopard and when caught, played dead. It ran off again only to be caught again. The video cuts to the leopard lying in the sand when, suddenly, the gosling makes another mad dash. This time it made a successful escape.
“Seizing the moment, the gosling took a chance and ran towards the thick bushes where its siblings were hiding,” Solms explained. “Disappearing into the dense bush, the gosling successfully escaped the leopard, leaving the predator unable to locate it again.”
Photo courtesy of Latest Sightings.
