Any bush lover worth their salt knows that you want to be up at the crack of dawn and on the road as soon as possible, in order to give yourself the best chance to see the big predators being active.

Or, as is the case with this video filmed inside Idube Game Reserve lodge, in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve near Kruger National Park, the cats could come to you.

This video was captured this past Sunday by Camz Engelbrecht, a 26-year-old field guide, and since being shared on News24 it’s become one of their most-read stories.

Sadly, also amongst the most-read stories is that awful elephant hunting video, but we’re moving on.

Here’s Camz’s take on what went down:

According to Engelbrecht, it happened at 5:20am on the lawns of the lodge leading to the guests rooms.

The guides are normally up an hour or so before the guests to get everything ready in the morning, with Engelbrecht saying he was half-asleep when the scene began unfolding.

“As I was making my way to the coffee station to set up for the guests my colleague Brogon spotted the female leopard behind a rock, watching a Nyala making its way to the lawn.

The female leopard is well-known by the lodge staff and is named Scotia.

Scotia sure knows how to put on a show.

Breakfast is served, although Camz and other staff did end up moving the nyala:

Scotia is a mom to an estimated 9-month old cub, which is why Engelbrecht and his colleagues took steps to ensure the camps safety after she left the kill behind in the camp.

“We knew that she would have to go and fetch it to bring it back to the kill. For safety reasons once she left her kill, myself and my tracker dragged the carcass about 400m outside of camp and put it at the base of a weeping boer bean.

All in all, not a bad morning in the bush.

[source:news24]