You got to love having leopard near by. Even if they are preforming a marathon sex show.Sitting at the salt pans...
After leaving camp at 3pm, we're settled into the blind by 4pm. Its a cramped affair, with me, Dalton, Andy, and Andy's camera taking up every last inch of space. No room to move! But that's ok, its time to find out what the deal is with these two leopards hitting this bait!
Time passes slowly. After a bit, a duck flies in. Then a few more. Eventually we've got an idyllic scene to watch. But we're not here for ducks!
As sunset nears, we hear the grunt of a leopard. Everyone is on edge, searching, squinting into the fast approaching darkness. Dalton is looking at the bait through a thermal sight. They're great for finding animals in the dark, but play hell on your night vision.
I catch a shadow moving between two bushes that looked like a cat. I squeeze Dalton's arm and whisper "he's here..."
And then I see another shadow move to the edge of the grass and lay down. What is going on here? We realized that it wasn't two males at this bait. It was a male and a female, sharing a fine meal after an evening of heavy mating!
The female jumps up into the tree and begins to work on the bait, while the male continues to lounge near by. We'd been concerned that it might be tough to distinguish between the large and small cat in the dark. No such worries. The size difference is significant, with the female thin and small, while the male is big and bulky.
And then something unexpected happens. In the last bit of light, I can still make out the female, but have lost sight of the male. And then another shadow appears, further to our right.
What is this third shadow? It keeps its distance, unmoving. The female stops feeding and jumps down from the tree. The big male and the female head off into the bushes, where they begin violently mating!
And then the third shadow moves to the tree and jumps up to the bait! This shadow is about the size of the female. And now the story starts to become clear...
As the male and female mate nearby, the young male begins to tear at the bait. He's taking advantage of the distracted male to steal from their dinner plate!!
We can't believe it! We have three leopards all hitting the same bait!!
Here's a clip from the thermal, where you can see the female on the bait, the large male relaxing, and the small male hiding:
The mating continues uninterrupted while the young male feasts! After a long while, the grunting and growling ceases and the young male disappears from the tree. At this point, all is complete darkness, so we only know what is happening from what Dalton tells us.
Dalton thinks the big male is in the tree now. We will wait for him to relax, stand up, and offer a perfect broadside shot. In the inky darkness, the leopard's ripping on the bait sounds like its only five feet away! The darkness amplifies all sounds!
Andy has his camera set up on a tripod and set for ultra low light conditions. Here's some of the video he was able to capture (none of this was visible to the naked eye):
Dalton continues to watch through the thermal, waiting for the right moment to come.
Not this time. The leopard jumps from the tree and finds his lady. The noisy copulating continues with renewed vigor! Meanwhile, the young male is back to steal some more bites!
While the sounds of leopards mating was interesting to start, now I feel trapped into listening to the audio-only tracks of a marathon leopard sex tape. Don't they get tired? Aren't they just a little hungry?
I loose track of time, as the leopards continue to bang away! I thought leopard hunting was supposed to be a quiet affair?? Every few minutes, the cats pause to catch their breath. Then they're right back at it.
Things quiet down and we can hear the young leopard vacate the tree. Eventually, we hear footsteps behind the blind. Have some hyenas come in to ruin our night? Surely not elephants? Dalton indicates that the young male is laying no more than 15 feet from our blind, off to our right!!
Then Dalton gives me the signal to get ready. The big male must be back in the tree! I ready myself, turn on my illuminated reticle to the lowest setting, and strain to catch a glimpse of anything in the darkness...
We'd discussed in advance that Dalton would turn on the red light so that I could find my target, but that I will wait until he gives the command to shoot. We want the leopard in a perfect broadside for the shot.
The light comes on and after a few moments, my eyes adjust and I can see the leopard. And then he jumps from the tree.
Darn. What happened? Did we make a noise? Did the light spook him somehow? Is he gone forever? Dalton shuts off the red light.
A few moments later, the leopard is back!
Dalton cautiously waits for the leopard to start feeding and then turns on the light. Same result! The leopard jumps from the tree! What the heck is going on?
This sequence of events repeats at least two or three more times. Then the leopard looses interest and goes to find his lady. The sex tape resumes at full volume! He's letting out his frustration at having his meal interrupted!
Dalton whispers that he's not sure what's up with this cat. Maybe he knows the program? Maybe he knows the plan? Maybe we've got a leopard that hates red lights?
All the while the groaning and growling of feline ecstasy continues to disrupt the usual nighttime quiet.
After about twenty minutes of furious sex, silence resumes. The big leopard is back in the tree! He's hungry!
We try the red light again. Same result. But as soon as the light goes out, he's back in the tree!
Dalton decides to try something different. We'll make an attempt with a torch, see if he's just sensitive to red light.
The white light flashes on and before I can really get my bearings, the cat is gone again.
Oi but this is frustrating! Our leopard has returned to his lady and the sex continues. I begin to wonder at their stamina! How are they not exhausted? How are they not rubbed raw?? Meanwhile the young male returns to the tree for a few more snacks.
I have lost track of time. I know only the sounds of leopards mating and insects buzzing. And then a new sound, a strange howl accompanied by footsteps behind us.
The footsteps circle around the blind to our right. The leopards are quiet now, seeming to rest. The footsteps resume. And then we hear a growl and a deep bark and a loud crashing sound. What the heck is going on out there??
As Dalton related later (he was able to watch the whole affair through the thermal scope), a hyena had approached the resting female leopard. As he prepared to antagonize her, the big male leopard stormed forward and slapped him across the face! The confrontation was over almost sooner than it began, with the hyena retreating to avoid further wrath from the leopard.
This encounter seemed to mark the end of our hopes for the night. There was a bit more leopard sex, but then things went quiet as they left the area.
After a time, Dalton indicated that we should exit the blind. Rather than calling up the truck and risk disturbing the leopards that were likely not far away, Dalton led us the couple kilometers to the truck. I won't lie, this walk was a bit unnerving. While I marveled at the crystal clear milky way in the night's sky, I couldn't help wondering where a lion or pack of hyenas might jump out and ambush us!
Luckily, we made it back to the truck safely. Heath, the appie, asked if we'd seen any leopard, surmising the worst from our worn out expressions. He and the trackers were blown away to hear that we had spent the last nine hours with three leopards!!
Too bad our big male seems to hate red light! Dalton will have his work cut out for him, trying to figure out how to crack this nut! We head back to camp for a short sleep. We'll be back on the truck first thing tomorrow morning, checking other bait spots and coming up with a plan to deal with our light-jumping leopard!
More adventures and excitement to come in our next installment!
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