Leopards of the Soutpansberg

An overcast sky diffused the morning light bellow the giant African Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) towering overhead. My guide carefully navigated me on the pathway through the arid woodlands a private reserve tucked away in the Soutpansberg (meaning “Salt Pan Mountains” in Afrikaans) in South Africa’s far northern Limpopo Province edging the countries of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

All of a sudden my guide stiffened and stopped, signaling me to stop. He had mentioned there was a particularly territorial and potentially aggressive female leopard in the area where we were hiking. The only protection we had was a large walking stick he carried. In a moment, the previously invisible big cat crashed through the underbrush where she had been watching us and was barreling full speed in our direction. The only “photographs” of this experience are the ones burnt in my memory. At that moment I made a split decision to lean forward towards her, stare hard, and curiously savor the beauty of the moments, even if these were my last. Just shy of 40 feet before reaching us she slammed her forepaws into the trail, stopped and glared at me with her fiery feline apex-predator eyes. Later that night the reserve manager relayed his astonishment of the encounter. He explained that had she made contact with me a quick swipe of her claws could have ripped me from the scalp to my midsection and have finished me off or left me extremely injured.

The rest of my time tracking leopards in the baobabs was more benign with less dramatic interactions, but no less memorable observations of these magnificent big cats.