Noelle DiLorenzo – 17 September 2009 Story

Leopard

This morning was the last drive of a four night stay for one of my guests. He requested that we please see zebra…oh and leopard if possible. Since he was the only guest with me for the morning, myself and my tracker were more than happy to oblige his leopard request as we had been tracking leopard on and off for days with no visual. I explained how the tracking would work and the guest was more than enthusiastic about the whole process. We picked up on some nice tracks of a male and female leopard who had been seen the previous night and who another ranger had been trying to locate that morning. We followed them into a thick area perfect for leopard with a dry river bed, large trees, thick bush, and of course, no access by vehicle. Just so the morning wasn’t a complete bust for my client, we stopped to view two sub-adult lionesses and then carried on with our search. Just as my tracker and I were starting to give up a sighting of one of our more relaxed male leopards was called through. We went straight there and were rewarded with a beautiful sighting of the male scent marking, walking, stopping and looking at us, and then carry on as if we and any other vehicle were not there. The look on my guests face as we left the sighting and the smile on my tracker’s and my own face more than made up for the slow morning and the previous mornings without seeing these elusive and beautiful creatures. Great ending for a stay at Kapama, great drive, great sighting, great experience for me and my guest…Oh, and we got an up close and personal encounter with a Dazzle of zebra just as we reached the lodge….Mission accomplished!

By Noelle