How do you top this? A leopard sighting on its own is something to smile long and hard about, but when you follow the distinctive alarm call of a jackal and arrive at a full family of these elusive spotted cats, you really count yourself lucky! Exactly this happened when guests at Africa on Foot guests interrupted their dinner at the lodge to follow up on a noisy jackal calling not far from the lodge. Greg and Enoch knew unmistakably that the jackal was alerting the night to the presence of a leopard, so they packed their guests back into the game viewer and followed the sound of the alarm call. It didn’t take long to arrive at the incredible scene and see Ross Dam female with not only one, but two leopard cubs!
This regularly sighted leopardess has been seen with a single cub on a couple of occasions, but it turns out that in fact there were two cubs and we were seeing, only one at a time. In the darkness, the mother leopard and her two cubs fed on an impala carcass, unbothered by the presence of their admirers.
One cub is a male and one is female, and they are about 4 months old. Greg first caught sight of one cub at about a week old while he was leading a walking safari back in January, but until now, no one has known about there being a sibling to the little male. The female cub was more timid than the male, and she is a little smaller in size, which is normal for a female leopard. The male has two spots above his whiskers on the left, and a rather dramatic ‘smudged’ eye marking on the right. He fed alongside his mother, and pounced playfully around a termite mound, giving guests many fantastic photo opportunities.
After a long time enjoying this rare and beautiful sighting in the Klaserie wilderness, Greg took his guests back to camp where they turned in for the night and slept peacefully before their morning walk in the wild!
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