The Leopards of Savute Safari Lodge

If ever there has been such a thing as month of the Leopard, June in Savute will definitely come out tops. The Leopards have come into the area at full force. We are encountering these majestic cats on a regular basis, both on game drives and in camp. This month we had more Leopard sightings than Lions! A very rare occurrence indeed, especially if we see that there are more than double the amount of Lions than Leopards in the area.

We had a total of 14 recorded Leopard sightings on game drives and more than 10 sightings in and around Savute Safari Lodge. While seeing Leopards on game drives is awesome, finding them in and around camp is really a something special.

Early in the evening we regularly hear the Leopards grunting away in the area, especially to the northern part of the camp. We had a very careful look at both the Leopards themselves and their tracks in the area to try and estimate the amount of individuals in the area. Leopards are usually solitary animals, and seldom tolerate another Leopard in the area.

Early evening on the 20th Sanet and I went over to our homes on the northern side of camp. In the middle of the track we found a young female leopard, propably around 6 months old. That same evening a larger adult female came to drink at the waterhole just after dinner. On the 24th a large male came to visit at our houses. He was patrolling the fence along the camp boundary and making frequent detours into the camp to investigate our houses, and he eventually caught a guineafowl in the tree right next to my house. Due to these sightings we calculated that we had one adult female, one adult male and a juvenile female in the area.

Last night Sanet was at her house and again heard a leopard right at her house. She decided to try and get some video footage of the leopard as it sounded very close. You can imagine her surprise when she saw a female leopard with a young cub playing on the lawn next to her house. The cub was running at the mother, jumping all over her, attacking her tail and stalking her. An amazing sighting indeed! As the mother noticed Sanet through the window, she came closer to the house, investigating this odd creature watching her through the window.

I have wondered many times: who is watching who in the wilderness of Savute.

Submitted by Kobus Lubbe - Savute Safari Lodge Manager