It struck me that some animals to rangers are like a sports team to a fickle public. When they do well, everyone loves them. When the results aren’t there, however, their capricious followers can be rather less faithful in their loyalties. Ok that is not the case in the bush exactly, but if you read back to March of this year, we posted a blog about the Dudley Riverbank female’s last cub, and how since other female leopards have given birth to cubs since then, cubs that live closer to camp and are generally easier to track down, that young leopard and her mother are not as sought after. There was an amazing sighting the other day between the Dudley Riverbank female, her cub and the Camp Pan male, but for months before then sightings of her had been infrequent at best.
Picture of Nanga and her cubs taken in September by Kate Neill. It is incredible how quickly the grow.
Anyway, months down the line I am again referring to how different animals’ stars can rise and fall, and at the moment, among Londolozi’s leopards, no individual’s star is shining brighter than the Nanga female. Falling out of prominence after her mother died and she was forced to shift her territory slightly further north than we were used to seeing her, it was months before she was once again viewed regularly, but since the birth of her first litter a few months ago, scarcely a drive has gone by without some ranger/tracker team heading into the north to try and find the three leopards.
The cubs fool around in the branches of a Magic Gwarrie.
Recently she was found by Don Heyneke and Rob Hlatshwayo near Nanga Road, her namesake, and our online chief and wildlife filmmaker/photographer, Richard Laburn, headed out during the day to capture some footage of the three leopards.
Enjoy…
The Nanga female was born to the Nyelethi 4:4 female in 2009 as part of a litter of three.
Written and Photographed by James Tyrrell
Filmed by Richard Laburn
Wow! Just amazing!
Good meditation. Grounding. I feel so calm after seeing those images of cuddling love. Thank you.
Lovely pics!
Can’t believe how time flies though – it’s now a whole month since we saw them!
That’s the most peaceful video ever. Amazing how much love one feels watching them. Silent, peaceful, calm…thank you!
Breathtaking – what a delight….
Amazingly beautiful!!! Thanks for having the natural sound of the bush in the video vs music!! Gives a feeling of being back there, sitting in the land rover and watching;)-Love that!!!
So sweet.
James & Richard, that was absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much
I have no more words
Loved this one !!!!
So beautiful…
Gorgeous and sweet. I at first thought it was playing in slow motion! How remarkably relaxed they all were. I didn’t know leopards sleep huddled together like that. Agree with previous comment that this was especially lovely footage with nothing but the sounds of the bush. Transported me right back to my magical visits. I miss my bush home terribly, but feeling very Zen in Chicago after watching that. Thanks, Rich.