Maternal Valor: The Emotional Saga of a Warthog Defending Her Newborns Against a Young Leopard in Kenya’s Maasai Mara

A young leopard ransacked a warthog’s burrow and killed both her babies as he risked his life to claim the prey in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve.

Wildlife photographer, Paul Goldstein said: ‘This may have been this leopard’s first kill. Whatever, it was utterly remarkable, I have never seen the like in 30 years.’

The leopard fatally wounds the warthog’s first piglet before dropping it and going after the other but after capturing the second one he lets it go when he becomes spooked

The sow tries to save her second piglet, they are powerful animals and have been known to kill lions, let alone 40kg young leopards, but the agile feline was able to spring up to a tree out of harm’s way with his catch

The adolescent male springs from the burrow with one infant in its jaws while the other tries to flee, he drops the one in his mouth and goes catches the second only to release it after becoming spooked

The sow returns to her burrow with her surviving piglet while the leopard lurks nearby to try to take her last infant

The leopard returns from his second foray into the warthog burrow with the surviving piglet clutched firmly in his jaws

The leopard chases after the second piglet as the mother tries to intervene using her tusks but the youngster proves too agile

The leopard holds the infant in its jaws before he becomes spooked and frees it, only to lurk around to make the kill minutes afterwards