LION, CHEETAH AND NOW LEOPARD

This morning I began my drive with Nick searching for some elephants in the Harragate section of Phinda. We eventually found the elephant in a herd of about 50. We watched them eat and then go down and play and bath in a dam nearby.

Shortly after we discovered two male cheetah not too far from the elephant, but our morning special was still to come. We drove next to a large river where our tracker soon discovered the prints of a large male leopard. We, however, did not follow up on these prints and instead continued back towards the lodge.

Our tracker then stopped and and told us to listen, we heard the alarm call of a kudu and saw some impala run but we could not see what was causing it as the bush across the river was too thick. Our tracker told us he was convinced it was a leopard, as we were in a good leopard area. The next moment he told Nick to reverse and sure enough there it was. A large male leopard sat on the opposite bank under a tree watching us. We could just see him through a small gap in the thick bush. He was very relaxed so we enjoyed the sighting and sat with him for a while until he decided to get up and walk deeper into the bush.

 It was a wonderful sighting and all the guests enjoyed it a lot.

Posted: Phinda by Craig Gunther, Date: 5 December 2011