A day with leopards

Yesterday we spent the entire day in the central part of the Serengeti, known for its large herds of antelope, wildebeest, zebra, elephants and giraffes.  Right along with them are the large cats, leopards, cheetahs and lions.  We have seen an abundance of all the cats, but they never fail to enchant us and to attract large numbers of trucks filled with excited tourists.

We saw leopards 3 times yesterday and spent several hours watching them.  Our first leopards were lying on branches high up in 2 different trees, quite near each other.  Since leopards are loners, this was quite unusual behavior.  Soon, across the river bottom, we saw a third leopard, also in a tree.  The third leopard was clearly the mother of the other 2, which were probably 2 years old and had just been sent off on their own.  So, being new to hunting, they will stick together for a while.

A mother leopard will teach her older cubs to hunt before kicking them out of her territory.  But, she will also spend several months supervising their hunting from afar to make sure they survive.  This mother was still overseeing her cubs launch into adulthood.

Soon 1 cub climbed down from its napsite and walked slowly over to the tree where its sibling was draped over a branch.  It climbed up next to its sibling (don't know the genders) and fell asleep, oblivious to the 15 or 20 Land Cruisers parked below.  After about 20 minutes, first one cub backed down the tree (they back down in order to be able to climb up again quickly if a predator--a lion--is nearby) and wandered off, soon followed by the other cub.  They wrestled for several minutes before each going back to their original tree perches to finish their naps.

Later, we saw a large male leopard high up in a tree, stuffed belly sagging below the branch and a mostly-eatern warthog on the ground below.  He was very contented and paid no attention to us as we avidly photographed him.