Red Billed hornbill aka Zazu from the Lion King, originally uploaded by Andrew & Yvette's world travel.
After the scene that unfolded before us last night we feel a bit spent. We saw lions hunt the 1st night, saw a massive herd of elephants and leopards feeding on the 2nd day, spent an hour w/ the cheetah on the 3rd day, and then we saw lions feast on buffalos yesterday. All this in only 7 game drives!
The 1st half of our morning starts off tame with just the usual sightings of elephants, hippos, antelopes, birds, etc. It’s funny how one can be so blasé about such sightings after only 5 days of such close encounters. During our morning tea, we had a visitor: Zasu’s cousin: a yellow billed horn bill. This bird spent his time w/ us jumping from one place to the next picking at our leftover Madeline and granola crumbs.
The 2nd half of our drive was spent tracking down a male leopard. Our search excites us as we have just realized we have not yet had a ‘proper’ leopard sighting, ie, in full view in daylight. Yes, now that we have been spoiled, we’re now picky re: our sightings. = )
On the way to see him, we passed by a dry riverbed where Ashleigh told us the story of a female leopard who used the rock enclosures as a den. She had given birth to two cubs twice but all 4 cubs had been killed. The 2nd set had been killed by a male leopard. We were surprised to hear of this but apparently, males kill cubs that are not his own as he views them as competition.
We arrive at the place where the leopard has been hunting for an anteater. He is on top of a termite mound and it is incredibly hard to spot him amid all the trees, bushes, and long grass. In fact, leopards are more common than you might realize but, using expert camouflage to stay hidden, it is one of the hardest creatures to track. We stay in our high vantage point waiting and trying to display the same patience leopards use when stalking a prey. As we wait, Drew and I quietly debate if there really is a leopard somewhere down there. Eye straining minutes later, the wind moves in the right direction and binoculars finally reveal leopard spots. Ashleigh takes a chance and decides to take us closer. Although we make a lot of noise bushwacking, the leopard seems unperturbed and doesn’t move. Parked right by the termite mound, we are now less than 5 feet away from the leopard. And still we have a hard time looking for him! Finally, he raises his head ever so slightly, careful not to rise above the grass. His face is amazing: muscular, cute, and sleepy?! When he raises his body, his face suddenly transforms as his eyes survey the surroundings intensely. He decides to leave the mound but heads straight towards heavy bush territory. He settles in this shady area and gives us a butt view to which we must content ourselves with.
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