For more than 2 years I have been contributing back page articles to this magazine and I have also completed a couple of online courses with them.
My biggest Wildlife Campus achievement to date?
Probably the fact that I started a course with them about 20 years ago…and I have yet to complete it! FGASA Level1. I started it so long ago that the course has actually changed its name!
This article first appeared in The Wildlife Campus magazine in April 2022.
For me, one of the most iconic predator cat species has to be the leopard.
Ask any guide who has been led a merry chase while trying to follow one of these elusive cats as they wander through drainage lines, up and down embankments and finally disappear into thin air, leaving guests with a brief glimpse and often no photo opportunities.
So it was with a sense of excitement that I, together with our guide, tracker and guests set out from a camp recently, hoping to not only find one but to have a decent sighting and images to prove that they are present on the particular reserve.
We were still getting settled and had only gone a few kilometers when I quietly asked our guide; “What is that in the road ahead”? Lo and behold, a large male appeared out of the vegetation on the side of the road and strode off at a purposeful pace not too far in front of our game viewer.
For the longest time, or so it seemed, we had a great view of his rear end as he meandered…if a leopard can be seen to meander…from side to side, marking his territory along the road that ran parallel to a boundary fence.
As we were unable to pass the leopard on the narrow road to get a head and let him walk towards us, we had to settle for a series of butt shots that would, I thought, be all that we saw. And then the sun rose, painting the road with golden light and bathing this magnificent animal in its glow. The shadow that it caused made it look as if the animal had become a roadblock.
Once the sun rose the lighting returned to a more subtle hew and after posing to look at us (one of the few times that it turned) it moved off again.
The guide and the tracker had decided that they knew where the leopard was headed and were keen to try to get ahead.
Although I have seen these cats often, territory marking of this magnitude was a first for me.
Trees, shrubs, and blades of grass all bore the brunt of his urine stream, which, believe it or not, smells like popcorn.
We followed at a respectful distance after having been stared down on one occasion when I believe that he felt we had gotten a little too close to his perambulations.
What I had not seen was these animals rearing up on their hind legs to reach high into the branches of trees to leave scent at a height that would make them look larger than they were to other males. We think that we, as humans, are clever, but these iconic predators have a bag full of tricks to fool rivals into moving off to seek other territories.
To paraphrase Scottish poet Robbie Burns; “The best-laid plans of leopards and men often go awry”.
It was at this point that the leopard seemed to have the feline version of “Did I leave a tap running at home”? It turned around and headed BACK the way he had been walking!
It passed so close to our vehicle that we could have leaned out and stroked his back.
He seemed to have decided that he had walked far enough and was headed back to wherever ‘back’ was.
It became a scramble to get the vehicle turned around to follow him once again, and the radio now crackled into life with other vehicles wanting to join in the sighting.
I suppose that the leopard was feeling somewhat ‘cocky’ as he thought that he knew what lay in the road ahead, so he got quite a fright when he discovered a blind snake on the road that had not been there earlier.
He leapt into the air and then, somewhat embarrassed I assume, vanished into the long grass.
Try as we might, we could no longer track his movements and none of the other vehicles could find him either.
Perhaps this answers the question; “Can a leopard change his spots”? It certainly seems that way.
When we stopped for our morning coffee, we chatted about how lucky we had been to spend almost an hour with this magnificent animal. A sighting that will not easily be forgotten.
If you are looking to do an online nature/hospitality course, then this is should be your go-to website. Click on the logo above to visit their website and enroll in the course of your dreams.
All images are the copyright property of
and may not be used without permission.
