I have been guiding at Londolozi for just under a year, and in the Sabi Sands for over four years in total. With this area being some of the best land in the world in which to view leopards, I have had the privilege of witnessing some incredible sightings over the course of my guiding career. I can confidently say however, that the last few weeks at Londolozi have provided some of, if not the best, sightings of leopards I have ever enjoyed.

Some of this has been down to pure luck, being in the right place at the right time, but the majority of these sightings have come as a result of the skill and hard work displayed by Londolozi’s guiding and tracking team.

It is always difficult to decide on one’s favourite sighting and I find it near impossible to make this decision as each one is different and has its own incredible element to it. Here are some of my favourites from the last few weeks:

After working with tracker Innocent Ngwenya, the Nkoveni female’s cubs were found late one afternoon. It seemed she had left them here and was off hunting. We quickly took one or two photographs and left the area for the safety of the cubs.

We believe the two cubs to be females, although this is yet to be confirmed.

In another sighting the Nkoveni female had managed to kill a large male impala and fed on it for a day before it was stolen by hyenas the following morning. We managed get some great photographs as a vulture flew over and one of the cubs ran up a termite mound and then climbed into a false marula.

The cubs were habituated from a very early age, although we are still limiting vehicle movement around them until they are a bit older.

It is usually just as the cubs start to properly develop their climbing skills that their mother will bring them to their first kill.

Often unable to climb the bigger trunks of the trees their mother will favour, the cubs will sometimes have their mother drop the kill to the ground for them. This false marula tree provided a perfect tree in which this cub could practice its newly acquired climbing abilities.

A sure sign that a leopard is about to leap into a tree will be it looking up to identify the easiest route up the trunk.

My next highlight was the Nanga female, who was found early one morning moving with her cub. This cub is now about 7 months old and is extremely playful and very relaxed around the vehicles, despite her earlier apprehensions about the presence of the Land Rovers. We watched as the two leopardsb climbed up and down trees. This is very important for the development of the cubs’ tree climbing skills, which will later enable her to hoist kills for protection from other predators, and escape danger if needs be.

Beautiful blue skies are to become more and more prevalent as we march into winter. The mud on the trunk of this tree which the Nanga female chose to climb is evident of its use as a rubbing post by elephants.

The cub of the Nanga female spies her mother in the tree and moves closer to investigate.

Incredibly agile animals, leopards have no problem leaping up distances of more than their body length.

The Nanga female, still being relatively young herself, often joins her cub in its tree-climbing excursions.

A large part of the cub’s education when in the company of its mother will be through observation.

The cub will be left alone for longer and longer periods of time going forward, and treetop refuges are going to be used more and more as it waits for it’s mother’s return.

We are incredibly fortunate to have a number of females with cubs on the reserve at the moment, with the Nanga female and her female cub being two of the most viewable.

This next sighting of the Ndzanzeni female was also truly special as she had managed to kill a large male impala near the beginning of the rutting season. Her and her cub fed on this kill for about two days, providing exceptional viewing before moving off.

The cub had a sibling which was disappeared in the first few months of its life.

These two leopards, although they don’t know it, are part of the royal family of Londolozi leopards, being directly descended from the original Mother Leopard that was first viewed in 1979.

Leopards are my favourite animal and to be able to view these animals the way we are able to is an absolute privilege I hope I never take for granted. With the impala rutting season nearing its peak we expect more spectacular viewing of  these cats as they take advantage of the easy hunting opportunities on offer in the from of the distracted impala rams.