WATCH | Leopard loses its buck kill as Kruger rangers come to clean up

South African National Parks (Sanparks) has moved to defuse an outcry following a video taken at the Kruger National Park showing people in a minibus type vehicle - including uniformed rangers - removing a leopard's kill from the road.

The video showed a group loading an impala, which was lying on the side of the road, into the vehicle. The impala had been killed by a leopard.

"We were watching a leopard killing an impala in the middle of the road on H7 this weekend. The leopard got a fright and ran away from the road. While we were waiting for the leopard to return to the kill, a group of people came and took the impala away," the Kruger Sighting group shared on social media.

Following the posting of the video, a number of people insinuated that the rangers who took the leopard kill were in the wrong.

However, Sanparks explained that the team from Sanparks had believed the impala had been hit by a car.

“Their understanding was that the impala had been hit by a car and as per their mandate, they removed the carcass and handed it to the Satara section ranger. All is above board,” Sanparks said.