When it’s your time, it’s your time, but don’t go down without a good fight.

There is little to no margin for error in the constant predator versus prey battle, but it’s not often that you get to see what unfolded in front of Adri van den Merwe, Rabbi Auerbach, and the Kiselstein family recently.

Filmed about 10 kilometres from Crocodile Bridge Gate, which is the most eastern entrance to Kruger National Park, the footage was posted on Latest Sightings’ YouTube channel.

You might recall that impala mistakenly sauntering into a cheetah death trap recently, but props to this buck for fighting until its last breath.

A warning that the video below is graphic before we carry on.

Here’s more from those who witnessed the scene:

Adri, arrived at the sighting just as the Cheetah was dragging the impala off the road while suffocating it – missing the chase by seconds!

“The cheetah started eating the (then still very much alive) impala. We could see the impala still making attempts to run, midst it being eaten, when the vultures started circling above and then slowly one by one made their way down to the ground, gathering together and then approached the kill as one.”

There is a lot going on here, but if you’re after the really grizzly bits, watch from the 2:30 mark:

Also, the vultures start rocking up from around the 4:10 mark, and hover like the waiters at a restaurant where the staff outnumber the patrons.

The vultures actually chase the cheetah away from the kill, and an absolute feeding frenzy ensues, before a lappet-faced vulture arrives and claims the final scraps.

Nothing goes to waste, and life in the bush carries on.

[source:latestsightings]