In this Week’s Window into our Wilderness, we spend a very entertaining morning with the Three Rivers Female and her Young Male near a waterhole. Rainy wet weather can often lead to us heading back home to get warm and dry, but not this morning.
Choosing to brave the rain we found this super playful duo resting near the edge of the waterhole, hoping that they would do something to make it worthwhile to still be out on the game drive. The cool wet weather definitely played into our hands and spurred on a bit of playfulness within the two leopards as they began to stalk, chase and play with each other. After some time the Young Male found fascination with many different objects within the waterhole itself.
Who said cats don’t like water?
Well, this Virtual Safari proves that theory very wrong.
Enjoy this Week’s Virtual Safari…
Forced into early independence as her mother was killed by the Southern Avoca Males.
To view the YouTube link, click here.
Oh, wow, the best sighting yet for me! The cub is hilarious! I especially loved it when he was spinning around to get it tail and looked a little dizzy at the end. Then at the end of the video when he holding his tail like he doesn’t realize it’s attached to him! Thank you for brightening my morning!
Thank you so much, Debra. It was such a fantastic sighting, if only they had hung around a little longer and we were not getting so wet.
This was such a delight to watch. What a great start to my Sunday morning. He must have been in sensory overload. It reminded me of my cat’s younger years when she would stand on the edge of the bathtub and splash in the water, while hiding in the shower curtain. I always hoped she’d fall in so I could laugh at her, but she never did.
You are most welcome, Chelsea. It was such an entertaining morning with the playful young leopard.
Lovely waking-up video here in the hot desert SW of US! Silly kitten eating your tail! Thank you!!
You are most welcome, Sally.
Lovely play. Tigers love water as well, so cats do have a link with it…………… I suppose just not all of them 🙂
I have seen and heard of tigers swimming and playing in the water but never a leopard having this much fun in a waterhole.
True! It is not well documented, but it would be great to see if it happens more often, also in Inda and other places…………
Priceless!
Thank you, Linda.
Sean, definitely one of the best leopard sightings I’ve seen! I laughed and laughed, especially towards the end when he was chasing his tail, around and around. Normally, it seems big cats avoid water, save for tigers but perhaps juvenile leopards don’t know this. Hopefully other rangers and their guests had the opportunity to witness this playtime in spite of the rain. Definitely worth getting wet.
It really was a fantastic sighting. I have a feeling it was because the leopards were already wet from the incessant rain that the playfulness of the young male got the better of him and he could resist the water.
This is really an amazing and extraordinary video, Sean. The Three Rivers young male seems to have the right name, as he enjoys water so much. I guess that this is not too common in cats, is it? Anyway , its greatly entertaining.
Two questions: It is also uncommon that you still have rain at this time of the year, isn’t it?
And: Would it be possible to join you in your car as a single guest? You seem to have the most amazing sightings of all the guides at Londolozi.
Thank you so much, Christa. It was such a fantastic sighting. It is not common to see leopards play in the water like this young male is, however, as a number of people have mentioned in their comments, Tigers are one of the large cats that are fond of water and will often swim or spend time in the water.
It is rather unusual to have this amount of rain this late on in the season. But in the southern hemisphere, we receive more rain during the La Nina cycle.
I do not normally take guests out on safari, but I guess your perception is correct only because of the fact that I am there to document every sighting I can get into. All the rangers here will also see amazing things, they just do not have the luxury of being able to film them all.
Hello Sean, What a fantastic Virtual Safari! You have done it again! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much, Ann.
The young leopard playing with his tail was priceless, thanks for sharing that.
Thank you so much, Moira. It was indeed a priceless sighting.
Well! Who says that leopards don’t like the water! I would say that the young Ximungwe male had a very jaguar-like morning playing in that small water hole! How absolutely delightful and adorable! I have seen jaguar cubs happily frolic and splash and drag sticks in the water but never ever a leopard! How do they know that no crocs are lurking?
Exactly, this young leopard appears to love the water. There is a slight worry that a crocodile might be in the waterhole. But I guess the young leopard would feed off the mother’s energy around a waterhole and depending on how nervous she is, that would cause him to be more wary.
Oops. Three Rivers Young Male leopard!
Sean that was a phenomenal video, I thoroughly enjoyed the cub playing in the water. Forsure he was not afraid of the water, he was soaking wet. Mom was close by watching his every move. I had trouble signing in last night to my email, but all is set right now.
Thank you so much, Valmai. It was a great sighting. I am glad the issue has been resolved with you signing in.
The young male at play made me have a good laugh, I really needed it! What an hilarious ans relaxing video! Really at the top.
Thank you so much, Francesca.
Best sighting ever! Playing with his tail and splashing around was too precious. The colors are amazing with the water and weather. Love Love!
Thank you so much, Anita. It was a phenomenal sighting.
Lovely to watch the interaction between the Leopards as well as the antics of the cub in the water.