This morning might have been the craziest start to a day so far. We started the day heading over to check on the leopards, and found the mother and the two cubs, enjoying the morning sun just soaking it in up in the trees (for the 2 cubs) and on the ground for the mother. She then spotted another leopard and her cub up on a hill not too far away and started running over there. I wasn’t sure what to expect but thought they might fight so I set my camera up really quick for action, and in the blink of an eye the two females snarled, swiped at each other, rolled around really quick and then both took off running back down the hill. I am still kicking myself for not recording video instead of thinking I was going to get a shot of action, and ended up missing it all with the camera, but am still happy I was looking at them when it happened. It happened so fast. The guide said those two were sisters and that sometimes they would fight over territory with each other, but neither seemed the worst for wear after that tussle.
We were taking more photos of the leopards and enjoying the great light on
them, when I noticed the adult was once again looking at something in the distance
with a lot of intensity. At first, I
thought her sister was coming back so looked over my shoulder to see what she
was looking at and was surprised to see a very large female lion heading our
way in the valley.
This seemed to make this leopard very nervous, and she
headed back down the hill towards her cubs at a pretty quick pace and our guide
started up the jeep to follow. We found
a good place to watch what from, and parked up.
The leopard had taken up a vantage point on a small hill and was
watching in the direction of the lioness. She was on high alert. Next thing I saw was the lion come around the
corner on the road, maybe 100 yards away and she suddenly spotted the leopard
and started to run right at her!
The leopard wanted nothing to do with a fight and went
running and scrambled up into the nearest tree… she kept going until she was
almost to the very top of the tree faster than I would have imagined possible,
and then they lion was there… throwing herself against the tree trunk and
looking up at the leopard. It was crazy
to witness that, but it was over fast and the lion seemed pleased to have
scared the leopard into the tree, because she then just slowly walked away and
down toward the riverbed.
It was exciting to watch and encounter like that and we
learned that those two cats will in fact fight, and lions will kill leopards if
they catch them. Not for food, but to eliminate them so there is less competition
for food in the area.
We all took a deep breath after all that action and decided to go check out a Bee
Eater colony down on the riverbank, where we sat and photographed them for a
while, enjoying the beautiful weather.
A huge male lion wandered by at one point and we
photographed him for a bit, before calling it a morning and heading back to
camp for lunch. It’s hard to believe how much better each morning has been than
the last. 😊
The light this afternoon was so good! I sure hope I managed to get some great shots today. On the way back to camp, we also took time to just sit and enjoy the beautiful sunset. We had some Giraffe wander by while we watched it and I attempted to get some good silhouette photos of them in front of the sun, so we’ll see how that went.
Today wore me out, between all the excitement and just the beauty out there. I’m sure I’m going to sleep well, but already looking forward to seeing what tomorrow may bring!
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