Leopards and hyena cubs.

Beautiful full moon this morning, turned off the headlights for a few minutes while driving along the road at 5:45 this morning. Everything lit up with the soft glow of reflected sunlight. Saw all the usual crowd this morning in Happy Zebra, every single cub except for Higgs, but I didn’t hear a cub whooping in Rumpy culvert which by process of elimination should have been Higgs. Also saw a male standing around about 200m away from Pike and company. He didn’t try to approach and interact and after a bit her started loping off to the east. I had driven over to where he was and snapped a few photos as he loped past then revved around to try and get his other side because based on his behavior my gut instinct was telling me that he was an alien male. I didn’t recognize his spots right off the bat but I don’t know both sides of every single animal in Happy Zebra 100% yet. Hyenas can lope fast and its often hard to keep up but luckily the grass was short and he paused a few times so that I was able to go around some culverts, cross the road, and follow him east. Eremet, who had been hanging back from the main group, seemed to startle him as he loped by but he made no move to interact with her either.

Did the SST prey transect this morning, it can be slow going to a transect on your own counting animals within 100m of the car on both sides of the track. Actually got an oribi within 100m this time! We see oribi every once in a while but we hardly ever get to count them in the transects. The grass is still somewhat long on the SST and the swallows were going crazy around the Maruti as my tires kicked up bugs. It’s quite fun watching them swoop and dive, makes me worry that I’ll hit them with the car but they’re quite agile and seem very confident flying around the car. Fairly quiet and peaceful morning otherwise.

Amazing night tonight. Had a very intimate and personal encounter with a leopard by which I mean all to myself with no other tourists and in a very close and relaxed setting. Was thinking it was about time to see a leopard, haven’t seen one since the trip back from Nairobi in August. This one was curled up on top of a termite mound, totally relaxed and serene. I drove up to it until it gave me a curious look and then I turned off the car and simply enjoyed its presence. It seemed extremely relaxed and a little sleepy (yawned a few times). Seeing a leopard is an amazing feeling, they are so rare and elusive that it always feels like a very special gift to sight one. It’s also strange to think that they are always around, and probably way more leopards see me than I see them. Always around but totally invisible, except for these rare moments when they let themselves be caught out in the open. 

They are certainly the most beautiful big cat of Africa, sleek muscular body and absolutely stunning spots and liquid piercing green eyes that look right back at you without blinking. Totally incredible. My whole body tingled as a sat perfectly silent (except for my camera) just soaking up the presence of this animal. This animal hunts and lives and sleeps all in this area that I drive through every single day and yet no sign of it is ever given. I see hyenas every day, lions almost every day, cheetahs every few weeks- but leopards only occasionally. And never like this, never alone one-on-one with no tourists crowding. Perfectly silent except for the gentle roar of the mara river about 800km east of us. Also surprising is the cat-ness of the leopard, scratching itself, turning and licking, standing up and stretching, so similar to my own pet cat. When it left I let out the breath that I’d been holding for the thirty minutes we shared together.

At the den I gave Biscuit her first female tick mark and she started to nurse from Bellagio just before I left so I can be absolutely sure that this is the same cub we saw at Bellagio’s natal den and not Komo’s cub. Komo once again stayed firmly planted deep in the den hole, mostly out of sight so I know she has a much younger cub in there. JLP was there again and while Bellagio slept (seemed exhausted) she played heartily with Biscuit. Biscuit is turning out to be an extremely spazzy little cub, cub movements always tend to be a little quicker, but this cub… and she’s a biter! She played hard with JLP, grabbing onto the skin on her cheek and bite-shaking with quite some force for a tiny little cub about the size of a soccer ball (though smaller if she was curled up tight in a ball). Komo snapped at Biscuit a few times as she kept falling into the den and then running out again disturbing Komo and Bellagio got annoyed with JLP once or twice for playing too rough I think. Java showed up for a bit and then disappeared, I think she’s only been hanging around for Komo and not because she has her own cubs. Though she could very well be pregnant. Exciting to be expecting a second cub soon though!! Nothing more fun than watching cubs play. Ever more certain that JLP is a girl, hanging out at den’s and playing with cubs seems to be a very subadult female thing. Still no shoulder spots on Biscuit yet so I’ve given her a birthdate of August 11^th which would put her at 10 weeks. Shoulder spots usually appear between 3 and 3.5 months. Hyena cubs develop extremely slowly in comparison to other carnivores, where a dog is full size (though perhaps not fleshed out) at 6 months hyenas do not reach full size until 2 years of age and will not stop looking subby until 3 years old. They nurse for over a year, usually 14 to 16 months when they’re already getting quite big. This slow development is similar to primates – in order to learn and develop in such a complex social system they require an extended juvenile period.