A Leopard Diary: My Journey into the Hidden World of a Mother and Her Cubs
April 19 I am so tired but what an amazing day It took nearly 40 hours of traveling but here I am at the beautiful Okavango Delta When I got off the plane my guide and tracker was there to greet me with the biggest smile it turns out Kambango he told me to call him Kam for short was just as excited as I was We went straight to the leopards den while we still had a few hours of daylight I had plenty of time to unpack and eat later Kam told me that the Camp Female had recently moved her two cubs Leopard moms often do this to keep their young safe from predators and I knew this was going to make things challenging for us A small hole in a fallen tree is a safe place for the cubs to stay when their mother is away This way they are safe from large predators such as baboons or lions While Mom is gone the cubs always stay close to the den so they can run inside if danger comes their way 6
Her new den was covered with bushes and plants she had hidden her cubs well I needed to be patient if I wanted to catch my first glimpse of her and the cubs After a couple hours we heard a soft sound It was the call a mother leopard makes for her cubs to let them know she is close by She had been out hunting and I could see that she had a full belly Suddenly an adorable cub popped out of a nearby hole And then another They were so excited to see their mama But then she led them away hiding them in the brush and out of our view We decided to wait some more It turned out to be worth it Finally we heard movement in the bushes It was Mom with her two cubs following behind She flopped to the ground right where we could see her clearly She checked us out for a moment and then rested her head on the grass Bringing her cubs out in front of us meant she was relaxed and it felt like she was giving us permission to see her cubs Only five weeks old these beautiful blue-eyed cubs are playful They bounced rolled jumped pounced wrestled and gently pawed at their mother All right in front of us I feel so lucky 7
When Kam and I finally arrived at Tubu Tree Camp it was just before dark This will be my home while I’m here It’s a tent but it feels like a palace It is spacious and has beautiful furniture Even better when I walk out onto my veranda I can see zebras and impalas grazing on the floodplains Both Kam right and his cousin Steve left work as guides and trackers They are experts on the African bush and they share their knowledge with guests on safari Sometimes the animals they are tracking are hard to find which means a lot of time can be spent searching for paw prints It takes a trained eye to do this 8
face-to-face face-to-face Kam and I had our dinner under the stars He knows everything about this place He told me that he was born and raised in the Delta As a boy he looked after his father’s cattle and spent nights in the wilderness all on his own He loves all wild animals but he has a special connection to the Camp Female because he’s followed her since she was two months old just a little older than her cubs are now I can’t wait for tomorrow Somehow I have wound up at the most beautiful place in the world with the best guide photographing the most beautiful leopard mom I feel like the luckiest person alive All the tents in the camp are connected by a raised boardwalk so people can walk around without having to worry about coming face-to-face with potentially dangerous animals such as the elephants or lions that sometimes wander through camp 9
