Leopard, the Spotted Predator of the Kalahari Desert

Every nature lover out there will undoubtedly agree with the following statement: “there is no other animal in the world that will stop you in your tracks quite like a leopard”.

On our recent trip to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park we did just that, spending hours in our car in the blistering heat waiting for leopards to wake up from their slumber in the famous camelthorn trees hoping to get a few seconds to photograph them - boy was it WORTH it!

On our previous trip (link) we focused more on the birdlife due to limited big predator sightings, but this trip was INCREDIBLE with 6 leopard sightings in just 7 days - come on, let’s go!

sighting

It was another scorching hot day with the afternoon temperature reaching 42’C but this did not damper our spirits as we packed our camera gear and water into the car and headed off to the gate of the Kgalagadi.

We were bouncing along the gravel roads searching the ridge lines and trees for any signs of life when something in one of the camelthorn trees broke the shape of the branches - what is that?

As we approached I immediately saw the spots and excitedly “shouted” LEOPARD to my wife - it was fast asleep about 3/4 way up the tree with it’s head comfortably nestled in the V shape of the branches.

I quickly positioned our car to have the best visible angle and switched the car off - within minutes we were starting to feel the heat as there was no airflow cooling us down. After a long 45 minutes, the young female leopard lifted her head, stretched and yawned, before moving to a different part of the tree.

We were excited that she was awake, now all that we wanted was for her to pose for a few photos in the “open”. We held our breath with fingers on the shutter buttons of our cameras as she looked down the trunk of the tree - she is going to DESCEND!

I sadly whispered NO and begged her to change her mind as soon as I realized that she was going to descend down the back of the trunk - totally out of our line of sight! A quick flick of her tail and she was GONE!

With the adrenalin levels returning to normal, I took a moment to digest what we had just experienced - truly magical! I was searching the area for the last time when I saw movement - it was the tip of her tail protruding from behind some fallen branches - was she coming BACK?

A few seconds later she jumped onto a fallen branch of the camelthorn tree and posed for a few frames - this is my best photo of a leopard in the Kgalagadi to-date as it represents the ruggedness of the desert!

Little did we know that the sighting was far from over as she made her way STRAIGHT TOWARDS OUR CAR - she came so close that she brushed up against our rear bumper!

She disappeared for a few seconds in the long grass on the other side of the road before making her way back to the road and went to lie under the car right next to ours - this is CRAZY!

I quietly let the people know not to switch their car on as she was directly under it - the look on their faces was priceless!

After a minute or so, the leopard crawled from under their car and made her way along the road - this is where we decided to wait back and rather give the other cars an opportunity to get closer.

This was only day 3 of our trip and with a memory card full of leopard photos we were on top of the world, little did we know that this was just a taste of things to come!

Watch this space for the next leopard encounter that lasted hours!!

Till next time…