Written October 3, 2015
By Lauren Sadowski (University of Vermont)
In an attempt to sleep later than usual in the beautifully wild Khwai bush of Botswana, I was pleasantly awoken by several repetitive and piercing howls of some very alarmed vervet monkeys. It was about 7:30am when I accepted that I wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep, so I unzipped my tent, stumbled out in pajamas, and proceeded with my morning routine of heating up the tea kettle. It seemed like a fairly calm morning with my camp mates and instructors finishing up breakfast and their readings, but the loud monkey alarm calls continued to cause chaos in the tree canopy above us. Our Namibian instructor, Vehi, got up from his chair to see what was causing this monkey commotion.
At that time, I remembered my instructors telling me that when you’re living in the bush you must listen to what the animals around you are saying because many of them will alarm each other when there’s a predator near. In that same moment, I hear a South African tour guide from another campsite near us yell, “LEEEAAHPARD!!” Vehi immediately jumped into the jeep and said to the rest of us, “quick, quick, let’s go!” I put down my tea and dashed into my tent, grabbed my Nikon, and then sprinted to get into the jeep. Knowing we only had a few seconds before the leopard would disappear into the thicket, everyone rushed into the truck, excited to possibly catch a glimpse of this ellusive animal. Vehi went to start the truck and the engine rolled over… of course it’s dead.
As quickly as we got into the truck, we got out and started pushing the bumper with all of our strength. In the heat of the moment I thought to myself, “am I really pushing a jeep in my pajamas in hope to see a leopard right now??”
We managed to get the truck rolling and the engine miraculously came back to life. We headed toward the dirt road, scanning the thicket and grasses vigilantly. After driving along the river for some time, someone finally spotted it weaving in and out of the thicket with it’s perfectly curved, bushy tail in our sight. We drove off road to get a closer look at this spectacular animal. Its head was spotted, eyes bright yellow, and its body was perfectly covered in its distinct black rosettes. The leopard didn’t seem bothered by our presence as it walked calmly and quietly through the thicket, perhaps it was tracking its prey. We followed it for a several minutes before turning back to camp.
This was not my first nor my last leopard sighting while staying in Khwai but it was definitely the most exhilarating and unexpected one, since we aren’t used to these mysterious predators coming so close to camp. However, this morning we found fresh leopard tracks even closer to our campsite. Perhaps they are getting more and more accustomed to our presence since we’ve been here for nine days now.
Spending just over a week in Khwai, I’ve had six leopard sightings in total, with four of those sightings on one day. The instructors have told us that we’ve been remarkably lucky to see this many in such a short amount of time, as they are usually very secretive creatures that stay out of sight. The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a solo hunter unlike lions and wild dogs. It usually starts to hunt on its own without its mother after about a year. This past week, one of my leopard sightings was a small one-year juvenile stalking prey alone.
In addition, leopards are excellent tree climbers and will climb trees to avoid predators and to bring its kill up into the branches. For example, on a transect drive today, I saw a very full leopard high up in a tree waiting for a lion below leave the sight. The lion was feeding on the leopard’s kill, which means that maybe the leopard ate enough of its kill or it couldn’t lift it up into the high tree. Our instructor from Botswana, Sixteen, explained to me that leopards and lions will avoid confrontation because they are natural competitors. He said that even if a lion finds leopard cubs or vice versa, they will kill the other’s young, knowing that the young will eventually grow up and compete for the same food source.
Another essential fact about the leopard and other felids is that their tracks have three lobes (indentations in the foot pads) while hyenas and wild dogs have two lobes. My instructor, Ben was explaining this difference to me this morning as we were following a set of adjacent leopard and hyena tracks on the dirt road near our campsite. The leopard tracks were symmetric, looked carefully placed, and lacked claws, where the hyena tracks were asymmetric and showed claw marks.
I will be continuing to note and learn more about leopards and their behavior while in Botswana. However, I hope that we will be as lucky in our next locations as we have been here in Khwai with the sightings.