A spot of ewe for breakfast

With the summer in full swing in the Southern Hemisphere, all the impala ewes have started dropping their lambs and we’ve been bombarded with the most amazing sightings over the past few weeks.  

Our goal for the morning was to find a leopard and we didn’t have to wait too long! Rika, one of the rangers from Bush Lodge, found a female leopard lying comfortably in a tree surveying the surrounds for a bit of breakfast.  

This regal leopardess soon spotted a herd of impala and came down from her vantage point to start the stalk towards her potential meal. As she stalked closer one of the impala spotted her and rang out an alarm call, making sure that everything in the vicinity knew that she was there. She took little notice as the herd moved away from her and she started to sniff through the grass.  

Often the little impala lambs will just lie down in the grass and not move – hoping that the danger will just pass them by. As we watched her sniffing we saw that one of the lambs had been separated from the herd and was standing helplessly alone, staring at the adults who were 100 metres away and snorting their alarm calls like crazy, encouraging the youngster to join them. 

The leopard slowly moved over without noticing the little lamb that was now no more than 30 metres from her. Suddenly the lamb broke into a full sprint as she cracked under the pressure and the leopard finally caught sight of it and went into a full chase to catch it. We went speeding round to the next road to see if we could relocate her and as we entered the bush we found her on the little impala, which was already dead. 

She dragged it off to the cover of a tree, staring up into the tree trying to figure out if it was worth the effort of hoisting into the safety of the branches. She then caught her breath and left to go find her 22 month old son who she is still providing for. We followed her as she moved through the bush calling for her son as she got closer to where she had last left him. She called and called till finally out of the bushes he came and joined his mother who then led him to the kill.  

What a day to be in the bush – this is why they say – never miss a game drive!