Yes! Seven leopards in seven days thanks to the special eyes of my tracker, Solly Mhlongo, and ranger, Adam Bannister. Knowing Londolozi is famous for their leopards still did not prepare me for this amazing adventure. Having the opportunity to spend so much time obseving their behavior gave me a better sense of how unique each leopard is. Their lineage, behavior and territory is known intimately by the rangers and explained with passion to the guests of Londolozi. I know my photos and my few words can’t capture what it feels like to be in the presence of these magnificent creatures and among such wonderful people of Londolozi. You will have to come experience it for yourself!
Short Tail Male Leopard
Short Tail Male Leopard
Short Tail Male Leopard
Vomba Female Leopard
Maxabene Young Male
Vomba Young Female
Camp Pan Male Leopard
Dudley Riverbank Young Male
Written & Photographed by: Irene Nathanson (Londolozi Guest)
What an exquisite post! Stunning photos made particularly amazing with names attached. Having a small bio sketch of each would be awesome, too! I’ve always wanted something similar with the lions, too – but, I would imagine that may be more challenging! Thanks Rich for keeping this blog up so beautifully!
Check out the FB group, Lions of the Sabi Sands…… click to join. There is also a group, Leopards of the Sabi Sands. These groups provide A LOT of info on the lions and leopards who live in the Sabi Sands area
Londolozi is an experience I wish for everyone, and hope to repeat one day. Thank you Irene for showing us your splendid portraits of these sublime creatures. 7 days at Londolozi, now that’s a week in heaven !!!
Thanks for all the compliments. What a great experience it was. I was quite fortunate to have a week in Londolozi heaven. Thanks Rich for working with me to put this together.
Absolute pleasure, great to be able to showcase your stunning pics to our blog community. Look forward to seeing you back at Londoz soon for a sequel blog post :-). Rich
Absolutely GORGEOUS photos! Hard to pick a favorite…BUT, I think the first pic of the short tail male is the ONE, because of his EYES!
Great job! they are all so amazing!
I agree with you Geri, I absolutely LOVE that picture of Shorty, both the pose and the color of the image are brilliant! Well done Irene. Rich
Great shots Irene. Thanks for posting them Rich. Can Irene or Adam let us know if there was any exceptional animal behaviour witnessed. Hunting? feeding? male/female interaction?
Hi Ryan, I remember being in the sighting with the Camp Pan male, second last photo. He had hoisted a carcass into a tree as there were about 4 or 5 hyenas around at the time. His behaviour wasn’t so interesting as seeing the hyenas trying to jump and grab some of the carcass. I had never seen a hyena jump before and the results were hilarious to say the least. You can see the footage from that sighting in this blog post: http://blog.londolozi.com/2011/11/what-goes-up-must-come-down/ . Thanks for your comments. Rich
Ryan,
I would have to agree with Rich. Although just sitting beside any of these majestic spotted cats can be breathtaking-watching Camp Pan Male return to his kill was most amazing. It was on the last afternoon of my safari -the last week in October(for my birthday). Adam first located the kill in the tree. He observed the kill had not four legs but six. Yes! There were two -I believe impalas stashed up this tree. Not far from the tree was Camp Pan Male- resting and breathing heavy as many of the cats do in the late day sun. We watched him for a while resting and drinking as seen in the photo above. Ranger Adam asked if we would like to return to the base of the tree and await Camp Pan Male’s return. Not long after we repositioned the jeep to be in perfect view for the leap up the tree-two hyenas begin to circle and jump attempting to retrieve the kill from the tree. This activity triggered Camp Pan’s return and leap into the tree. We sat below for quite some time watching the leopard lick and chew on its kill as the hyenas persisted and anxiously awaited the dropping of scraps. As the last of the light remained-Camp Pan dragged the two kills futher out to the end of the branches. Adam turned of the light and had us sit there silently in the darkness-no photos -no voices-just the sound of nature in the tree
Thanks for the detailed reply Irene and for the link to the video of the hyena jumping Rich. What a sighting! Unique and interesting animal behaviour for sure. It is great to know that even after all of Rich’s time in the bush he is still seeing things that he has never seen before.
Very nice pictures of the most beautiful cats in Africa. Congratulation!