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| Leopard hunting |
At Lebala Camp, a beautiful place, but where we saw few animals, we were very lucky to spend an afternoon tracking a leopard hunting. He did not seem to mind our vehicle following along across the bush. We followed him for several miles while he walked, stopped, sat up staring ahead, lay down to rest and generally proceeded slowly in search of prey.
We backed off and watched from a distance when he approached his prey, a male impala grazing peacefully. Though the leopard was downwind of the impala, it didn't take the impala long to realize there was danger in the area. He just didn't know where to look. And he couldn't run because he didn't know where the danger was. For nearly an hour, we watched the impala grazing, then standing at full alert, then moving carefully a short distance away. Meanwhile, we couldn't see the leopard hiding in the tall grass, but he was
moving ever closer to the impala.
Finally the impala wandered off, too far away for the leopard to get him. The leopard moved off in the opposite direction. Eventually we found him again, rolling in the grass, giving himself a bath, and playing. The photos below are the leopard, not distraught over losing his dinner, but enjoying himself before he joined the hunt again.
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