Afterplay

On average, leopards will mate every 15 minutes for up to 5 days. This means that if they last a full 5 days, they can mate more than 250 times.

Once the mating begins it is a non-stop affair, filled with uneasiness and violence. In order to stimulate the female to ovulate, the male has barbs on his penis which dig into the female. When the penis is retracted it hurts the female causing her to lash out at the male - and that is what you see in this picture.

Photographed in South Africa.