We arrived on the scene a little too late to see this bad boy in action -- he had just killed a female baboon and was jumped by two large male baboons -- apparently he dispatched them pretty quickly. No mean feat, because a male baboon can be a pretty tough customer -- two would make it a big time fight. Anyway, arrived as this boy was dragging the carcasses up into a tree. A little note of trivia -- don't play touchy feely with leopards -- they have been known to attack humans from the front by jumping on them, using their front claws to grab over the back of the head and rip the scalp off over the face, all the while kicking like crazy with their back feet and disemboweling their victim -- dead in about 5 seconds. No crawling up to this boy with my fisheye.
After he had the baboons stashed up the tree, we noticed a female leopard hanging around nearby. Turns out that the two of them were in the process of mating. In fact, they can spend several days mating -- sometimes doing it every 15-20 minutes or so. Another piece of trivia -- the male leopards have a bony barb on their penis -- to keep them coupled together I think -- but apparently it hurts big time when he pulls out. As a result, the female always shrieks a bit and twists around and and bites and swipes at him a couple of times. this makes a really good shot -- if you are lucky enough to get it. We stayed with this pair for 3 days, listening to their mating through the bushes and occasionally getting a glimpse -- but there was too much brush in the way to get that killer shot. That's the way it goes sometimes for a wildlife shooter.
Nice shot Andrew. Leopards have been known to kill people especially in India where there have been a number of incidents in the last couple of years. However, the leopards one encounters on safari are generally habituated to vehicles and pose no threat to the tourists unless one does something very stupid. I have been around 30 different leopards over the years and have never had one threaten me or the vehicle. Giving them the space they want and allowing them to approach you is always the best way to avoid confrontation and not stress them. Their flight or fight distance is usually pretty easy to suss out from their body language and pushing it may get an unwanted and undesirable response.
And the barbed penis is characteristic of the big cats and cheetahs which is thought to explain the females post coital aggressive reaction...but I guess hormones outweigh pain!
Eric
the leopards one encounters on safari are generally habituated to vehicles and pose no threat to the tourists unless one does something very stupid. I have been around 30 different leopards over the years and have never had one threaten me or the vehicle.
Hi Eric -- never for a second meant to imply that this leopard was a threat to attack us in the open Land Rover -- in fact many times he was within 10-12ft of the car and there were absolutely no worries. But, as I said, I wasn't about to get out of the car with him around. I have never seen a cheetah mating, but have probably seen 12-15 lion mating's over the years and, while I do recognize that they have the barbs, have never seen the violent reaction that this female leopard had -- so I figured that this male leopard's barb must have been a beaut. All the best, Andrew
Andrew, very nice and intense close up. He is indeed a bad ass taking on 3 baboons. The only thing I've ever seen a Leopard cower from was a large pack of wild dogs that had treed him.
Jim
Great capture and story.