This morning we had an interesting encounter. We were driving along the Klaserie River when I heard a troop of chacma baboons screaming their usual warning barks. I knew we were in the area of our dominant male lion so we got off the vehicle to investigate. Just twenty meters off the road, Magnum (my tracker) saw a male leopard at the top of a Weeping boer bean. We returned back to the vehicle and approached the leopard. As we got closer, the leopard reluctantly came down and snarled. This is strange behaviour for him to have been displaying. Little did we know that he was not alone. Suddenly without warning the leopard went darting off, running for his life apparently, when the male lion appeared behind him in close pursuit. It was a five seconds of adrenaline rush for us and the leopard, and ended with a splash in the river where the leopard got away with his life.

Rob

10/12/2011