Page 122 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

Talesl
Ta

from the A female leopard and juvenile
h h h had encountered them in
photographed in 2016. John
2014 and took an image
of the mother (inset).

A WILD WORLD OF
RIPPING YARNS

WHO?
JOHN WEIR
is an amateur
wildlife enthusiast
and photographer
who is based
in the Scottish Borders
WHAT?
LEOPARD
WHERE?
SOUTHERN AFRICA

JOHN WONDERS WHAT BECAME OF A
FEMALE LEOPARD WITH TWO CUBS.

n July 2014, I visited Botswana hoping independent, so theodds were not in their cub and she looked identical to the blind-in-
to photograph Africa’s big cats. The first favour. Of course, I also thought about their one-eye leopard that I’d seen back in 2014.
camp I visited south of the Okavango partially sighted mother. Checking her markings more closely, it was
Delta proved to be a fertile hunting Fast forward to July 2016 and I was without doubtthe same animal and Ben
Iground and on the last morning my out in the bush in Tanzania’s Tarangire had taken the images at exactlythe same
guide, Rams, decided to investigate a den NPwhen a serval appearedbut quickly location where I’d seen her.
site where a female leopard had been seen vanished into some longgrass before So that satisfied some of my curiosity
with two young cubs. Lions had forced her I could get any decent shots. Later that regarding her fate – as of a month or two
to relocate though, so we weren’t especially evening I met a German photographer, ago, she and one of her cubs were still
optimistic about seeing her. Ben, who’d taken some great shots of the alive. But what about theother one? Ben’s
We approached the den cautiously and serval. He also liked the images I’d taken guide had said the mother andher two
were glad to see that she had returned with of a lion kill earlier that day, so we swapped youngsters had madea kill in the open, but
her two six-week-old cubs. The female was email addresses and agreed to exchange been attackedby some lions who stolethe
well known to Rams because she’d been in photos when we returned home. prey and killed one of the cubs. The mother
the area for two years and the previous year A few days after I arrived back in the eventually hauled her dead offspring into
had lost two cubs, probably to lions. He UK I received an email from Ben with the a tree and ate part of the carcass.
estimated she was five to six years old and serval images, plus some leopard shots he’d good andbad news about a leopard I’d seen
Soachance meeting hadbroughtme
eopards: Benjamin Recknagel; inset: John We r I watched them for about 30 minutes, as SIX YEARS OLD AND BASICALLY achievement. Soon, it would be
basically healthy apart from being blind in
taken in Botswana, where he’d been before
two years earlier. On the whole, I reflected,
travelling to Tanzania.
one eye, which made her easy to recognise.
raising a singlecub to independence is an
They were of a female and her juvenile
the cubs suckled and played.
Over the next two years
driven out by the mother to go
“HE ESTIMATED SHE WAS FIVE TO
start a family of its own so she
I often wondered whether
will, hopefully, breed again.
the cubs survived –Iknow
of leopard cubs reach an
to share? If so, please email a synopsis of
BLIND IN ONE EYE.”
Two that fewer than 40 per cent HEALTHY APART FROM BEING O Do you have a tale that you would like
age where they become
your idea to james.fair@immediate.co.uk
122 BBC Wildlife August 2017