Desert Leopards

I'm spending a month at Sossusvlei and each day so far is bursting with new discoveries for me. On this particular morning, I decided to go back to an area where I'd seen leopard tracks the previous day. Leopards aren't often seen in this desert environment. We reached the spot just before sunrise and stopped to photograph the rising sun and breathtaking scenery. Twenty minutes later, as we were packing away our cameras, we heard a jackal alarm calling in the distance. I immediately thought it was coming from the same area as the leopard tracks, so we headed towards the jackal. Now there were at least five jackals rallying together and sounding very alarmed indeed. We just had to find the cause of their distress... when we got closer, we saw them staring into a dry river bed, looking very agitated. I scanned the area with my binoculars, and just off the viewing field, I saw the unmistakeable silhouette of a leopard's head in the shadow of a Shepherd's Tree. Soon after the initial discovery, a second silhouette appeared! Two young leopard siblings, about a year to a year and a half old, emerged from the shadows into the perfect early morning light and proceeded to play tag, using the tree as their den. Up, down and around for about three quarters of an hour - by the time we left, I was absolutely exhausted from the effects of all the adrenaline from finding them and the excitement of photographing them for so long in such perfect light.

Posted: Sossusvlei by Phill Steffny, Date: 8 August 2010

 
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