Some sightings deliver exactly what you hoped for. Others deliver something even better: a bit of bushveld comedy wrapped around a spectacular moment. My recent encounter with the Tortoise Pan Male was very much the latter.
The Short Wheel Base Leopard
We found him in the northern stretches of Londolozi, draped across the branches of a marula in that calm, heavy-bodied way big male leopards do when they know they rule the place. Stocky, powerful and built like the leopard equivalent of a pitbull, he’s been a remarkably successful male across the Sabi Sands. And on this afternoon, he looked every bit the part. A big, confident cat in his prime framed perfectly for two of the guests who happened to be avid photographers (Rudi and Marion shoutout). In that sense, the sighting felt like a gift.
Born 2016 to Ndzanzeni Female, royal descendant of Mother Leopard. Now a dominant force in the north.
The Doldrums
Most guides will admit that, after years of working here, you start to quietly “manifest” specific sightings. Not out of entitlement but out of pure love for the place and its possibilities. We daydream about seeing certain leopards in certain trees because every now and then, the bush lines things up so perfectly it almost feels orchestrated. Rain over the past few days had made tracking tricky, add to this that male leopards roam vast territories, and you start to realise that the odds weren’t exactly in our favour! Still, off we went, bouncing between roads he might patrol, reading the landscape for movement, sound, anything. An hour and a half later or so we hit what I can only describe as the doldrums. No tracks. No alarm calls. Nothing. Just the creeping feeling that maybe today wasn’t our day.
Imagination Regurgitation
Which is precisely when I started talking up my favourite marula in the area. The “perfect leopard tree”. Every guide has a few. Height, angles, background, clean branches… the whole checklist. So there I was, painting this grand picture for my guests, fully leaning into the fantasy of finding the Tortoise Pan Male draped over that exact tree, even though I knew the bush rarely listens to our plans.
A Not So Eloquent Moment of Discovery
We continued up a rise, and in mid-sentence, I spotted a shape in the branches ahead. A leopard. I momentarily forgot my own name and yelled something along the lines of “S**t“! So loud I shouted, I nearly sent my guests and Euce into cardiac arrest. As I sped up towards the sighting, the punchline hit. The Tortoise Pan male wasn’t in THE marula. He was in a far less photogenic marula about 40 metres to the east. Quite literally the closest tree to THAT tree.
The Tortoise Pan Male rests peacefully in a marula.
Bushveld Humour, Never Take Yourself to Seriously
There he lay close enough to feel like he’d heard every word of my enthusiastic build-up but far enough away to remind me that the bushveld has a dry sense of humour. We burst out laughing. The perfect tree stood empty, glowing in the afternoon light like a missed stage cue, while the Tortoise Pan Male himself lounged smugly nearby, clearly unbothered by my grand plans. And honestly? It was perfect anyway. A big male leopard in a marula is a privilege no matter which tree he chooses. That much will forever remain true – a reason this job never gets old!
Moments like these are a reminder to just get out there, enjoy the unpredictability and soak up the magic for whatever it is. Londolozi has a way of meeting you halfway… often with a grin.
The Tortoise Pan male, once again, delivered. Just not quite in the way I’d scripted.
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on The Not-Quite-Perfect Leopard Tree