Leopards of Sabi Sands

[ShakaMapogo]

Source : Londolozi Blog, December 4th 2019 
On Anderson Leopard. 

"It soon became clear, though, that things weren’t right with him: the leopard had a large gash on its neck and was breathing rapidly and heavily. Looking at his battle-scarred face and ragged tail, we realized Anderson was not long for this world; Greg estimated he had only a week left. A wave of sadness washed over our bumble as we came to terms with what we were seeing: almost certainly one of the last sightings of this mythical fixture of Londolozi’s leopard landscape.
Once again Greg switched off the headlights, leaving us to sit silently in the company of this still formidable animal at the end of its days, able to see only its hulking silhouette in the sand. That’s when the Ntsevu cubs arrived.
As the pride materialized out of the darkness, bounding over a crest in the riverbed, my heart pounded in my chest: over a dozen lions trotting toward us, and a leopard in the same sighting! But the lions were moving at a serious clip, and the excitement gave way to dread as we registered that they’d detected the Anderson male’s scent and pegged him as an easy target. We all held our breath and braced for a gruesome fight.

Whether it was our spotlight or the sound of the lions that tipped him off, the Anderson male dipped into whatever energy reserves he had left and zipped out of sight with one or two seconds to spare. As we let out a collective sigh of relief, the lions turned to the female nyala kill stashed under a nearby tree, attacking it with incredible ferocity. It was an emotionally charged moment, one that revealed the flip side of Londolozi’s bounty of leopards. It’s easy to become so attached to individual leopards here that this part of a leopard’s circle of life becomes hard to swallow.

But long after the Anderson male stops making headlines in the lunchtime leopard newsroom, we can continue to reflect happily on a wild life well lived and, even in his final days, the endless awe he inspired."

by : Michael Harmon Reply