BOTSWANA: LEOPARDS

Shortly after we arrived at Kadizora Camp in the Okavango Delta, we turned around and got back in the Land Rover so that our guide KT could take us on our first Botswana game drive. Two leopards had been spotted earlier, which is a fairly rare sight, and we were on a quest to find them before the sun started to set. KT warned us that he was going to drive very fast and that the roads would be bumpy.

No kidding. And not only were they bumpy, but they were also wet.

We flew along pitted and grooved dirt trails and through ponds of water as deep as three feet as if we were on the paved highway:

We stopped briefly for a few photos . . . 

. . . but in general we made our way directly to a spot quite a ways off the road (How did KT know where to go?) to a bushy area surrounded by grass. Sure enough, there was an almost grown African leopard "kitten" relaxing in plain view (if you knew where to look, and KT did):

Leopards look like big kitty cats . . . 

. . . but they are merciless hunters and are so strong that they can drag a kill as big as an antelope up a tree for safekeeping.

KT pointed out that leopards have "rosettes," or irregular splotches of black with brown centers, on their backs and solid black spots on the head and haunches.

Wait a minute--what is that by the leopard's tail?  

It's the head of a second leopard!

KT drove slowly around to the other side where we could get a different view. Yep. Definitely two leopards!

You might be bored, buddy, but we aren't!

This is a brother and sister pair. He was definitely more adventurous than she was.

After a while, he got up to go get a snack. KT told us that the white tips on a leopard's tail and ears make it easier for cubs to follow their mother and each other through the dense underbrush.

Sister stayed put:

The kill, a red lechwe (a species of African antelope), was under a nearby tree. KT told us it was too big for the kittens to have killed it. Their mother had probably done it, and then left it for them to eat. KT began scouring the area, sure that the mother was hanging out somewhere nearby, but he couldn't find her.

We watched as the leopard ripped sinewy flesh from the lechwe's fat mid-section.

This was a major National Geographic moment, one of the highlights of the trip for us:

After watching for quite a while, KT said we had to go so that the girl and the mama leopard would come and eat. Once night fell, the leopards might lose the kill to a hyena or other scavenger, and the shy females would be left with empty tummies.

However, the following morning we returned to the same spot, and just as we were driving up, KT saw the mother, less acclimated to vehicles, dashing away. The kittens were still there, but we couldn't see the carcass anymore. KT thought they had eaten most of it and dragged the remainder deeper into the brush.

Anyway, back to the previous evening.

After we left the two leopard cubs, we headed back to camp. En route, we saw a Verreaux's eagle owl perched in a tree. It is the largest of the African owls and looks a lot like a North American great horned owl in silhouette:

Bob was able to lighten up one of his photos of the eagle owl to show detail (left). On the right is a North American Great Horned Owl, photo from the Audubon Guide, for comparison.

We stopped part way back to camp in an open, grassy area to have our first "sundowner," a traditional refreshment stop that we would have many more times on the trip.  KT pull out some snacks and some tonic water for Bob and me. (We had requested no alcohol. When we connected with other groups for future sundowners, there was always plenty of of the harder stuff.) My picture is pretty fuzzy, but you get the idea:

We munched on nuts and crackers while we watched the transformation of the western sky into a palette of brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. As the sky caught fire, the temperatures dropped precipitously, as if all the heat was being soaked up by the horizon.