Baboons chase female leopard - 03:37 am

12 Oct 2008

The female leopard that Brad has picked up is hungry and is hunting. She makes her way into several trees to gain a better vantage point from which to survey for potential prey. Looking out across a floodplain, a troop of baboons approach. Spotting her, they give chase. She leaps from the tree and tears across the floodplain, pursued by the baboon troop. 

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Lions sleep but leopard is on the move - 01:17 am

12 Oct 2008

Brad lets us know that he has found a female leopard that is moving north towards Deadtree Island. We will head up to join him.

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Flat cats - 12:49 am

12 Oct 2008

These lions are all fast asleep in the early morning. The night chill has already dissipated and a warm breeze is picking up. The first light of day is always a special time, both from a photographic and experiential point of view. The lions have fed very well of late so I doubt if they are going to do much else, bar move into the shade a bit later, for the rest of the day. We will stay with them for a bit and then move on to see what else is happening in the area.

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Lions at sunrise - 12:40 am

12 Oct 2008

We find the Xakanaxa pride all lying up in an open couch grass plain. There is very little going on but it is a very pretty scene. We hear impala alarm barking just north of us, which interests some of the lions briefly, and Brad heads up to have a look.

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Elephants at last light - 03:30 pm

11 Oct 2008

At very last light on our way home we come across a small herd of elephants feeding and dust-bathing. They are really relaxed and we spend the last of the day with them.

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Abstraction of movement - 03:12 pm

11 Oct 2008

A leopard moves with such mercurial grace. He walks head slung low, scapulae scything and knows just how powerful he is. He seems to survey the world with an arrogant disdain. He is such a magnificent animal.

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Leopard makes his way through grassland - 02:56 pm

11 Oct 2008

Just at sunset, the young male leopard begins to make his way casually southwards. He is not in a rush at all and pauses regularly to listen and smell the air. He will move through his home range during the course of the evening, scouting for potential prey and hunting. He is well aware that there is a larger, more dominant male in the area and he judiciously gives him a wide berth.

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Leopard eventually descends jackalberry tree - 02:49 pm

11 Oct 2008

Just before sunset, the leopard eventually rouses himself, gracefully descends the jackalberry tree and begin to march off to the south. The supreme strength and agility of these animals never ceases to astound me. They can haul themselves, plus at least their own body weight, up a vertical tree such as this with relative ease.

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Watching sleeping leopards - riveting! - 10:07 am

11 Oct 2008

Waiting for leopards is exhausting work!. They can disappear in the blink of an eye, so we must wait with them in the hope that we get some action this evening. Brad and Julie take a close look at the back of their eyelids while Gareth keeps and eye on the leopard.

What is encouraging however, is that there are, for the first time some clouds building up to the west. I don’t think that it will rain for some time yet, but this is at least a start.

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Long lazy leopard vigil - 09:57 am

11 Oct 2008

It has been a long day waiting with this leopard so far. We didn’t really expect anything else, but these animals have proven to be very unpredictable in the past and regularly hunt during the day, even in the past few weeks as the daily temperatures increase. So we sit in the shade some distance off watching and waiting. A herd of impala walked slowly beneath him while ago, oblivious to his presence. He watched them pass with interest but did not make an attempt at them. I think he is probably too high to have any real chance anyway.

An interesting aside. It looks to me like two yellow-billed kites are nesting in this tree. They have been in the tree alarm calling, and sitting in a neighbouring dead tree all day. These kites are migrants and arrived here about three weeks ago. They will breed here this summer before heading back to north Africa at the onset of winter. 

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