Over the past couple of weeks, the Ximungwe Female has proven to be a very difficult leopard to find.  So, with a recent report of her and her 3-month-old cub being seen a few days prior, our excitement levels were high.

They had last been seen going into the Tugwaan River, deep in the central parts of the reserve. It is a beautiful area littered with ancient trees, bouldered ravines and magnificent tamboti groves that line the riverbed.

The Ximungwe Female lying comfortably in a marula tree.

Our goal over the next two days was to find the Ximungwe Female and her cub. We knew it might take some time, as it is a heavily wooded area, making it challenging to track a leopard, let alone access it with a vehicle.

We set off from camp in the early morning twilight, the invigorating, cool breeze gently brushing across our faces. As we descended the crest into the valley of the riverbed, we came to a halt. Tracker Terrence and I got out of the vehicle and began searching for tracks in the soft sand.

The Ximungwe Female and her cub from a previous litter that unfortunately did not make it to maturity playing in the river sand of a dry riverbed.

After about half an hour with no fresh signs of the two, we decided to move further downstream in the riverbed towards a series of large boulders to investigate further. Again, we got off and started searching.

We found tracks of only the Ximungwe Female from sometime during the night, leading out of a steep, gullied ravine. Terrence decided to follow her tracks a little further up the riverbed to see if he could get a better gauge of her general movements.

The Ximungwe Female leapt up into a Jackalberry to see what a troop of vervet monkeys were alarming at the bottom of the valley in the distance. She knew they couldn’t have seen her from where she was before they started alarming calling.

“Bhuti (brother in Shangaan), go take a good look up there, I’ll be back now”, he said to me, pointing at the top of a steep bank.

As I reached the top of the bank, climbing up a mini amphitheatre of beautiful boulders, I could see a little further up the ravine. Few places on earth make you feel more in the heart of the wilderness than in the central parts of the Tugwaan River, tracking a mother leopard and cub.

I stood still next to a large knobthorn tree that was growing out of a termite mound along the bank of the ravine. With the elevated perspective to my advantage, I used the opportunity to survey my surroundings thoroughly. Still nothing.

After a couple minutes, a slightly eerie feeling drifted over me. Distant sounds began to fade, and all my focus shifted to the beautiful liquid-bubbling notes of a Black-headed oriole in one of the nearby trees behind me.

I slowly turned my head around and glanced up in the direction of the bird. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

The Ximungwe Female’s 3-month-old cub sits on a small branch of a Jackalberry tree.

Less than two metres away, at the base of the large, heavily slanted trunk of the knobthorn tree that I was standing on, lay the Ximungwe Female’s little cub. His ears were pinned back, and his tiny body pressed tightly against the tree. For what felt like minutes, our eyes locked (realistically it was likely no more than 5 seconds). It was an incredibly powerful moment that will imprint itself in my memory forever.

I quickly, and quietly descended the boulders back down towards the Tugwaan River and softly gave off myself and Terrence’s ‘signature’ whistle. He shortly rounded the corner with his classic big smile, knowing we had succeeded. What a rewarding feeling it was.

For a cub of this age, everything is new. The young leopard didn’t take its eyes off us until its mom arrived.

After eventually manoeuvring the vehicle into a position to see the cub, a distant flock of Crested Francolins flew off from behind us in a panic. This could only mean one thing – the Ximungwe Female was on her way back. Only moments later she arrived, and the cub came scrambling down the tree to come and greet her.

The Ximungwe Female’s cub keeps his curious eyes on us as he rests next to his mother (by this stage we were safely back in the game drive vehicle…)

And there we were, in the middle of the wilderness with a mother leopard playing with her tiny cub. It was smiles all around as we watched the two in silence.

Head rubs are a ritual often observed. This behaviour enhances the bond between mother and cub.

What seemed to be the real reward however (even trumping our navigating of the vehicle to stay with the two of them), was that she led us to a hoisted kill later in the morning. It was a young kudu calf.

The cub looking up at the kill, which you can just see at the top left of the photograph.

Satisfying a ravenous little appetite.

From start to finish it was an incredibly special way to spend a Sunday morning, with the Ximungwe Female and her new cub. A magical day that I’ll never forget, I love it when a plan comes together!