We are stalking leopards in the game park at Ngala Lodge. Leopards are usually nocturnal and very shy animals. They are therefore not easy to spot in the wild. This is probably also the reason why the leopard is probably the most widespread big cat. Leopards adapt perfectly to their living conditions. They can therefore be found in a wide variety of regions and can be found both in the jungle and in desert regions.
The night before, we sat together with our ranger for a long time after dinner over a glass of wine. He then offered to give us a special experience the next morning.
He saw tracks of leopards nearby today. The four of us (ranger, helper, Brigitte and Jürgen) are to search for the leopard that day. The best time should be just before sunrise. So we have to get up at 3.00 am and set off at 4.00 am. As this stalk is not without its dangers, our ranger has already equipped himself with a rifle (just in case). After just a few kilometers, our Land Rover stops in the middle of the bush. Is this the end of the much-anticipated game drive?
We are disappointed, but our ranger doesn’t give up that easily. Of course, there is no garage to be found in this wilderness. Help can only be requested by radio at the lodge, but that would also mean abandoning the safari. So we help ourselves. The day before, it had rained cats and dogs all night. The whole area is swampy. So the repair is a real mud fight.
Meanwhile, Brigitte turns her attention to botany and explores the flora of the African wilderness, especially as it has come back to life after yesterday’s thunderstorm. New plants are sprouting from the ground in every nook and cranny. Nature is awakening to an unusual bloom. Meanwhile, hard work is being done on the Landy and underneath it. After endless attempts, we finally manage to get the Landrover back on the road. The repairs have taken some time, but our ranger is still determined not to give up the search for the leopard.
We drive through riverbeds, past water holes that have formed after the rain and then suddenly and completely unexpectedly our assistant guide, who has his lookout post on the mudguard, gives us a sign. He has spotted something.
It is the leopard whose tracks our ranger saw yesterday. Slowly, the leopard emerges from its hiding place and trots off across a clearing before our eyes. Our assistant guide has suddenly swapped what he considers to be an unsafe front seat on the mudguard for a supposedly safer place on the passenger seat next to our ranger.
The leopard’s sense of sight, smell and hearing are exceptionally well developed. The big cats are also excellent climbers and swimmers. Bushveld leopards rarely weigh more than 70 kg on average. Nevertheless, they are able to pull large prey such as impala up into trees to bring them to safety from other predators.
Our guide tells us that he observed a leopard dragging a young giraffe weighing around 100 kg several meters up into a forked branch. Leopards are absolute loners. Males and females live in separate territories. However, the male’s territory usually overlaps several female territories. During the mating season, a leopard mates with all the females in its hunting territory that are in heat.
Suddenly we see another leopard emerge from the thicket. It is very rare for two leopards to go hunting together. In this case, it is two younger brothers who obviously think they have a better chance of a successful hunt together. We follow the two animals on their quiet stalk through dense bush, across the open savannah and through river courses.
At one point, we lose them in a closed thicket that we can’t drive through. But as we drive around the bushes and reach the other side, we see them again. Majestically, without giving us the slightest glance, the two leopards stride towards their destination. They travel up to 30 km on their hunt for prey. We have already seen quite a few animals in the wild. But these majestic, sleek big cats are indeed a special experience. Our ranger didn’t promise us too much. Time and again, the leopards move silently through rough terrain. We follow the two leos for more than two hours. Occasionally we think we have lost them. We begin to think they are playing cat and mouse with us. After driving around an embankment, we suddenly see them standing in front of us again. One of the leos is sitting perfectly still with its nose in the scent…………
Leopards can exist wherever they can find small and medium-sized prey and good cover. Leopards spend their entire lives as singles. Their contacts are usually limited to the mating season and, in the case of females, to the time when they are rearing their young. Breeding is the sole responsibility of the females. After a gestation period of 100 days, 3 – 4 young are born. The young are dark and only slightly spotted. When they are 2 years old, they leave their mother and look for their own territory. The male leopard has a territory of approx. 18 – 65 km2. The female’s territory covers an area of 10 – 30 km2. Male leopards are 60 – 70 cm tall with a body length of approx. 200 cm. Their weight is about 60 kg. The females are approx. 180 cm long and weigh 30 – 50 kg. The leopard can live to be more than 20 years old. Leopards mainly go in search of prey at sunset or shortly after sunrise. They travel up to 30 km on their hunt. The leopard consumes a wide range of prey from beetles to antelope as well as warthogs, jackals, rodents, snakes etc.
But now we want to tell you more about our safari, so here is the second part of our travel report:
One of the two leopards has obviously caught the scent of prey. From his elevated position, he has a good view of what is happening around him. The brother secures the area on the other side of the terrain. Now the time has come. The prey has been spotted.
It is a small impala. Vigilance, tension and a feel for the right moment combined with the speed of a hunter are the basic requirements for a successful hunt. The hunt begins. One of the two leopards is about to pounce on the prey. The impala has no real chance when two leopards are hunting together. The bite to the neck brings death in no time at all.
The prey is then transported to the nearest tree to keep it safe from potential envious predators. After a short time, the impala is taken to a thicket that seems safe enough for the leopards. We follow the two brothers at a reasonable distance, but are then able to get within a few meters of the departure point in the Land Rover.
Here we sit, rooted to the spot, in the open Landy while the leopards divide the prey among themselves. A leopard breaks open the impala and guts it. We can clearly hear the breaking of the bones when biting. A sound that still sends a shiver down my spine today. The second Leo waits a short distance away in the nearby thicket and secures the area. We are obviously not regarded as enemies, otherwise it cannot be explained that we can watch the action from a distance of 5 meters. The whole procedure takes over 2 hours. We sit in the now blazing sun in the open Land Rover. I always have my camera at the ready, just as I always have my rifle at the ready with the Ranger. Time passes without us realizing that we’re already getting sunburnt. We don’t notice any of this because we are so captivated by the scenery.
On our return journey, we are happy to have witnessed this aethetic and at the same time cruel hunt. She will remain unforgotten.
