The lonely leopard

There have been many storms in the bush recently so when it’s wet there is no way we can venture off the road till it’s much more dry for fear that we get stuck and even worse, may cause damage to the bush itself. Most people don’t understand that it can take anything between a year and two years for serious ruts caused by the vehicles to fully recover. As frustrating as this can be at times, especially when you watch the leopard you tracked for an hour disappear into the long grass, this is the nature of the bush. 

I was joined by a group of guests for four nights that were excited to get out there and find some animals. The one guest, Mark, was a keen photographer and desperately wanted to get a photo of a leopard. Unfortunately the animals can smell desperation from a mile away and hide as soon as that scent hits their nostrils. Now, at Sabi Sabi we pride ourselves on our leopard sightings but it was just not meant to be. I knew that the minute these guests left the leopards would crawl out of their hiding places and make themselves known again. I couldn’t have been more right…that evening five different leopard were found on drive, four of which were no more than 500 metres from one another.  

We were on our way to go join up with a sighting of a 2-year-old male leopard and just before we got there he bumped into a female leopard. This female had been seen very briefly the last night and had been heard repeatedly as she was calling to attract the dominant male of the area to come and mate with her. Somehow this young male thought he would try his luck but was met with a fierce response from the female. They lay in the long grass no more than 3 metres from the road hidden from sight but the female’s growls and hisses could be heard loud and clear as the young male whimpered back in submission.  

As we sat waiting for them to move so that the guests could see them, one of the other vehicles had found the young male’s mother and as soon as his now estranged mother started to call he immediately lost interest in the female he was with and went in search of his mothers company hoping that she had some food for him. His mother left him to his own devices almost 3 months ago and they haven’t been seen together since.  

As he walked in her direction, he called regularly and stopped to listen if there was any response. Unfortunately for him there was none. He then decided he would be better off heading back to the other female who once again wanted nothing to with him. After watching the two of them for nearly an hour, I felt very happy that the two of them had decided to put on their show right next the road. They eventually headed off in separate directions to carry on with their evening activities and we headed back to the lodge for some dinner. 

On the way back we were lucky enough to find a beautiful spotted eagle owl perched right next to the road. After snapping off a couple of photos, Solly, my tracker, found tracks for a four-course meal on the road and we successfully tracked them right back to the lodge. Yet another tough day in Africa!