First Delta leopard–Elephants of Botswana

Yesterday was a packed day for Mphoeng and me. It started early with the monthly road survey, for which we had resigned ourselves only to be able to drive the dry parts, as the flood is still high and some of the crossings are pretty precarious (see a post from a month ago with a video link- pictures paint a thousand words!!) This idea went out of the window when Joseph, one of the guides, said he was going to join us for the survey, as he was very keen to investigate that side and see where is drive-able now. So investigate we did. Amazingly we didn’t get stuck, although we came pretty close on a couple of occasions. There is a lot of water still, and it’s certainly not good for the vehicles to be crossing channels like that every day. However, it was great to get that side again and I look forward to a time when those routes can become part of our daily traversing.

Kudus

In the afternoon we were out again to put the infrasound recording collars on the captive herd for a night time recording session. We met the herd in the bush, and between there and the boma saw Pula and Nandipa again with a young wild bull, and left the boma to return to camp just as the sun was setting. There was several of the Seba staff also at the boma in need of a lift, so we all piled onto the vehicle and with lots of chatting and laughing headed back to camp. Not long before camp, just beyond the airstrip, Mphoeng stopped the car and pointed at a Leadwood some 80m or so into the bush, and sprawled on one of its horizontal branches was a young female leopard. I had been warned about Mphoeng’s leopard eyes, and it was a fantastic spot. We approached slowly as she lay watching us, legs either side of the branch below her. She lay looking at us for a while before moving down into the fork of the tree, and then into the bush and away. Beautiful. The journey from there to camp was practically silent and if anyone else on the vehicle was feeling anything like me, I sat with that quiet and content glow that few things can instil in me like a leopard sighting.
Charlie

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