A call for mating!

It was a great evening when i went out with two guests. Our expectation was to see leopard.So we started to drive along the Grumeti river. After 45minutes Patita radio us that he had spotted a leopard near Kuria gate.We rush there to see this illusive cat.On our way near silio crossing but on the plain we saw Ostrich mating. It was a first time to one of my guests to see ostrich mating.So it was amazing, we then left for leopard but unfortunately the leopard disappeared into the tall grass. We started searching and finally we found her.It was a female leopard and probably it is one of Tatu's daughter as we know this female by her behaviour that she is not shy at all.She went down the trench and mark the territory and then we couldn't see her for 3 minutes and later she appeared and passed right infront of our vehicles. Then started following muhanga road and was marking the territory almost every 10steps she made.There was a time that she found a buffalo's dung on the road and she smelt it and rub her body againsts it.The red necked francolin came to see what was happening with the leopard rolling herself on the ground.It was a close look. The dung was wet with urine around and she turned from one side to another as you can see from the picture.I think the main reason for this was to blend in/ cover her sent with urine and dung so that the prey or antelopes will not easly smell her and for that reason she will be able to hunt without being noticed by the prey. She went up hill near Augur buzzard's nest and started to call like barking.I knew she was calling for a male to mate because i have seen the same things happened previously. We waited for a while to see if the male will appeared but unfortunately he didn't and she also disappeared into the cliff but we could still hear her calling. Yes, we can't wait for the new cubs in the mid of September as the gestation period is 3.5 months. That was a call for mating.

Posted: Klein's Camp by Erasto Gurty, Date: 2 July 2009

 
Additional images: