Looking for leopards?

By: Jacqueline Lahoud
16 July 2010
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Tips for spotting the elusive and silent leopard:
1. Seek local advice, ask around – rangers, staff, visitors, etc.
2. Look on the sighting boards in the campsites, go back to the places they were previously spotted. Leopards are territorial.
3. Drive slowly, focus and adjust your eyes for well-camouflaged, sassy creatures.
4. Drive along river beds in the early morning and late afternoon (leave campsite as early as possible and return as late as possible to try catch the nocturnal creatures).
5. Look up during the day – trees, cliffs, rock formations.

Where we saw leopards:

Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre – protect and breed especially cheetahs
Tel +27-15-793-1633, e-mail info@cheetahcentre.co.za or web www.hesc.co.za.

Punda Maria in the Kruger Park (North)

Mashatu Private Game Reserve in Botswana
Andrei Snyman – Northern Tuli Predator Research
andre.snyman@googlemail.com

MalaMala Private Game Reserve outside Kruger (south)
Nils Kure – Manager and Ranger Training
nilskure@mweb.co.za

Did you know?

The collective noun for leopards is a leap of leopards.

Find more collective nouns for African animals here.




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One Response to “Looking for leopards?”facebook

  1. Safari Finder says:
    August 27, 2010 at 12:00 am

    The best way to find these elusive cats is learning certain alarm calls. Vervet Monkey’s chattering is your best bet. Alarmed, noisy monkey chattering will almost always point you in the right direction. Look for where they are looking as well- they are usually quite precise with their height advantage. Other alarm calls can help too. Those such as impala snorting or kudu, bushbuck and nyala barking can help and will usually take you to within less than a hundred metres of the predator- depending on quickly you can get to where they are. Sometimes these sorts of alarm calls will lead you to other predators besides leopard but hey, there is nothing more fun than finding a large cat, wild dog or active hyena.

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