The love of leopards

Whenever I am heading out to guide a safari in Africa, I ask people which of the trio of big cats to be found across the continent is top of their wish list. The answer almost always comes back as “leopard”. Much of this is driven I’m sure by their justifiably renowned elusiveness and ability to keep themselves to themselves – that and their, on the whole, very nocturnal nature. I personally think it is getting harder to see cheetah these days such is the alarming drop off in their numbers taking place, but I fully recognise the challenge (and rewards) associated with looking for leopards and have spent many years across the continent trying to decide where the best opportunities can be found. When it comes to density they are actually at their greatest in Mumbai but they are far from visible there. In African terms then as stunning as the sightings and images can be in East Africa I have always found the south of the continent to be that bit more reliable in terms of numbers and equally as important , tolerance and in later years the Greater Kruger region in South Africa itself has topped that list, so much so that it’s the only place I have ever felt happy to headline a trip as leopard focussed and this blog is a reflection of a week or so with that mission last July.

Our first day began with an early sighting of a striking male – always a treat in itself as they always seem to a bit more shy than their female counterparts. He was in full sleep mode so after a while watching to see if this changed we heard off to see what else we could find: needless to say when we returned later that morning he had disappeared! The morning had through given us a second sighting this time of a female up a tree with a fresh kill.

Sadly she had just literally that morning too lost her cub in a fight with a different male leopard over this very kill and seeing the young dead cub near to the base of the tree was pretty tough for us all and a reminder of just how finely balanced life for even top predators can be in the the bush. When we headed out on our evening drive we came across her again – several hundred metres away from the kill and settled in a different tree and showing sense of what an intense day she had clearly had and been through.

As you can see from the second of these two images, it is possible to stay out after sunset here (unlike much of Africa’s reserves) and in fact night driving the way back to base is very much an integral part of the afternoon drive. On this first night it well and truly paid dividends as well as we came across a third individual leopard for the day who stopped for a drink at one of the dams as we went past.

It would be wrong to say this area is only about leopards though – over the course of the week we spent a lot of time on other species offering great photographic opportunities as one might expect, including a hyena den (they are much maligned but their pups in particular are still cute) and several groups of lions, one pride of which had some small cubs too.

Leopards were our main focus though (and other guides/drivers in the area soon worked that out which meant even more information which was really useful) and our next sighting was typical of just what quality encounters can be had here. We came across this exceptionally pretty young female as she was moving through the bush and with just one other vehicle (as remained the case for the full four and a half we followed and sat with her) enjoyed her company in an array of locations as she regularly stopped to survey the scene and decide where she was heading on to.

I’ve always been a particular fan of good evening sightings as you know the light is just going to get better and better and so it proved, her next location being one she chose to settle down in for quite a while as the sun just got warmer and richer in terms of quality – and her poses did as well providing an array of different compositions to work with and a couple of different locations to position our vehicle too.

Eventually she decided where she was heading and stood up for a different spin on things….

As she headed off on her next repositioning we were able to keep in touch with and anticipate quite a bit of her momentum so we could be in good positions as often as possible (going off road with your vehicles is also fine here – bush allowing of course) and in doing so this next brief pose just sums up the potent combination of light setting and species that makes working with leopards here so productive.

We enjoyed a final sighting as she made her way through a small grassy clearing and then decided to let her make her way into the bush by herself – we’d spent well over an hour and a half with her after all!

African wild dogs are for many as elusive as leopards and over the course of our week we enjoyed a couple of good sightings with them too: it can be exceptionally hard (and high adrenalin) when they are on a hunt in this sort of habitat, the pack split and running in different directions at great pace and so it’s necessary to grab images quickly when the opportunity arises but these portraits are all typical of what unfolded for us in the respective morning and afternoon sessions one of which as the images evidence involved an impala kill.

There are certain images that when I see them it’s possible to work out just where they may have been taken, and images of lions walking on a tarmac road are almost certain to be from this corner of SA.

I’m not normally a fan of this clash of elements in an image but on one morning the timing of the encounter was so perfect that the light on the Drakensberg mountains in the background was so perfect that I was more than happy taking images as they really told a story, the oncoming vehicle and it’s lights a further key ingredient.

I couldn’t end this piece though without finishing on leopards – they were the heart of the trip after all and well and truly delivered with over 10 individuals seen in the week testament to the densities I referred to earlier. One full day was devoted to a mother and two cubs who had made a kill ion the night. Our morning encounters were very much of the watching brief, establishing what was happening and that one of the cubs was brave and the other less so but content enough to keep himself to himself. In the afternoon when we returned the carcass was finished, the shy cub well and truly hidden in the shrubbery but the mother and other cub just relaxed on a perfectly elevated fallen tree – sometimes looking at us and sometimes just crashed out.

Once again we were able to stay for the whole evening session, although all the two of them wanted to do was hang out and no doubt digest. It did allow for some different compositions once again – something that time sitting and waiting is so good for.

As the light just carried on improving we repositioned to the other side of the log but the sum total of response can be seen in the following sequence of portraits of Mum, the sort of sequence I love to capture.

All in all the leopards of the low veld had delivered once again and I can’t wait to return again next year for more of the same.

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