If you’ve been lucky enough to visit Londolozi you’ll know that you head out on safari each day with a plan in mind. Ideally it would be to focus on trying to find a particular type of animal and then whatever you see along the way is a bonus. When we left on drive this particular afternoon we set out looking for the Tamboti female, but we had absolutely no idea just what the bush had in store for us.
After spending the majority of the afternoon with a large journey of giraffe and a herd of elephants that were drinking and playing around a waterhole in the middle of the property, Innocent Ngwenya (who I track with) and I decided to drive a road we hardly ever go.
In truth we took this route because it was the quickest way to get to the place we wanted to have a sundowner at. We weren’t on this road for longer than a couple of minutes when Inoccent’s hand flicked up off the bonnet, which always indicates that he has seen tracks worth stopping for. In this case they were of a young female leopard and looked fresh! The light was fading fast so we were racing against the clock now.
Innocent and I left the guests on the vehicle and followed the tracks on foot. Suddenly the alarm calls of a crested francolin sounded from nearby, and after a quick scout in that direction, we caught sight of the leopard about 50m from us.
For me personally, it doesn’t get much better than tracking and finding a leopard on foot; I was convinced this would be the highlight of my afternoon. I excitedly headed back to collect the guests and the vehicle and drove quickly into the bush to try find where the leopard had gone too. Often when a leopard sees you on foot they will move off quickly into the nearest thicket and disappear, but when we saw this individual, she seemed more interested in something on the ground than myself and Innocent .
As we moved closer with the vehicle we realized that she hadn’t moved much since the last time we had seen her, sitting dead still and fixated on something a few meters in front of her. It looked like she was stalking something but we just couldn’t make out what is was.
As a young female (just over a year old now), I have watched her practicing her hunting skills on everything from a rhino to a scrub hare. As we moved around a small shrub to see what she was stalking, Innocent shouted, “PANGOLIN PANGOLIN!!!”
A pangolin is a scaly anteater and is arguable the Holy Grail of animals to find on safari.
Right before our eyes we had one of the most elusive cats in the world stalking and pouncing on one of the rarest. Biting down hard, the leopard was unable to penetrate the Pangolin’s armour plating.
As a defense from predation a pangolin will curl up into a ball so that its hard exterior is facing outwards and a predator is unable to get to its soft underbelly. The Tamboti young female treated us to about 20 minutes of her trying desperately paw and bite her way through the pangolins hard scale before losing interest and moving on.
After having no success, the Tamboti Young female started to lose interest…
Unfortunately in the excitement of it all I seemed to lose all concept of how to use my camera so only managed to take a few half decent photos. After the young leopard moved off we managed to get a closer look at the pangolin. Innocent told us that in the Shangaan culture they are an extremely protected animal, that if you kill a pangolin and the blood drops on the ground there will be a drought for many years.
Fortunately this one was unharmed by the leopard encounter, and we certainly weren’t going to harm it, so let’s hope that means good rains for the next few years!
Wow! Incredible sighting. A pangolin is still on my bucket list but to see a leopard with a pangolin is amazing.
Truly incredible!!! I bet everyone’s heart was racing! What an adrenalin rush! Another lucky and amazing day for you and your guests at Londolozi! So true you never know what you are going to see on safari!
That’s a 5 star sighting! The pangolin has eluded me each time I’ve visited Africa, but perhaps next year……..
Insane sighting!! Let’s do an instant replay in 10 days when I visit!
Fin how very cool!! That is the ultimate sighting! Not only a leopard but a PANGOLIN. Way to go! I hope your guests realized how lucky they were. I am hoping that I will see a pangolin when I come to the Sabi Sands in October. Best of luck to see more pangolins
What an incredible experience! The elusive and the rare is both the best and unusual for anyone. Your images are terrific, Fin!
What an incredible experience! The elusive and the rare is both the best and unusual for anyone. Must have been very amusing to watch young Tamboli biting and chewing on the impossible. Great life lesson for her. Your images are terrific, Fin!
Lucky you and my best regards to Innocent!
Fin,
Thank you for this wonderful blog. I have missed Londolozi so much since we said goodbye. I know I will be back there.
What a wonderful experience, Fin! I have seen leopards in the Kruger Park a number of times but not a Pangolin – not ever! We have seen Aardvark and an Aardwolf who did a poo in the dusty road in front of our landrover and then covered it up neatly and trotted off into the Bush – totally ignoring all the interested pairs of eyes watching him! Wendy M
What an amazing encounter! Has the young Tamboti cub become fully independent at this point or is she still hanging with mom on occasion? We saw them both in April.
Unbelievable sighting. 0-2 for Pangolin myself through two trips on which I visited Londolozi and Okavango. Fortunate to have seen a number of leopard between Kwara and Londolozi, but a pangolin? Uh uh. Pangolin and a leopard just incredible
Fin, What a fantastic sighting! The only Pangolins we have seen are the ones on Terri’s earnings! Hope to find a real one on our next visit!
There really are no words for how amazing that sighting must have been!!