Here at KwaMbili we see leopard regularly but we still get as excited as if every leopard were our first leopard simply because they are such an absolute pleasure to see. So what I am about to tell you next really had an impact on me.
We were following up on a large pack of wild dog when a call on the radio came in that a young male leopard had been spotted. This sounded very interesting so I asked my guests whether they would not rather prefer to go and see this leopard, having already seen wild dog over the past days. They agreed and off we went. What made this especially exciting for me was the fact that we knew of no young male that had established a territory in the area of the sighting. My immediate thought was that this may be Bizaan (a young male leopard in our area) and this already got my adrenaline pumping because we had not seen Bizaan for a couple of weeks. However we were surprised to hear that this was not a well-known leopard at all – and other rangers had only seen him a couple of times. He had not even been named at this stage, which gives you an idea as to how special this particular sighting was to be!
We were called into the sighting and personally I have not had a more picture-perfect scene in all my life. As we pulled into the sighting a young male leopard now known as Xinyama (which translates as Darkness in Tsonga – because of his dark markings) was lying on a termite mound with the sun setting behind him. This leopard was just breathtaking and his markings were incredible. As the sun got lower he moved off the termite mound and began to hunt a small herd of Nyala a couple of hundred metres away. The way he sat in the grass allowed me to appreciate the beauty of this magnificent leopard. His whiskers were very long and he has the most amazing facial expressions. After about 15 minutes the Nyala spotted him and they ran off. I took one more look at this incredible leopard before we left him in peace as it was getting late. This regal leopard shows great potential. I am very excited at the prospect of having a new leopard in the area and seeing what he has to offer over (hopefully) many years.
Report and images by ranger Matt