Leopard sighting!

26/06/2008 10:48:58 AM

On the 4th of June while on an exploratory drive Jed Bird, David Parker and Charl Gammelin guides from River Bend lodge came across a male bushbuck that had been killed. After examining the carcass for a while we came to the conclusion that it was killed by either a leopard or a large Caracal, after capturing photographic evidence of a caracal on a camera trap close by in the area it was assumed that the bushbuck was in fact killed by a caracal. Had it been killed by jackal most of the carcass would have been eaten.

On the 6th of June Jed and I went to check if the Camera had captured any shots of any Rhino in the area. When scanning through the pictures to our amazement we found out that we were wrong about the caracal killing the bushbuck. To our utter amazement a leopard had come past that water point the night before at around midnight. Spirits are really high at the moment especially due to the fact that this leopard a young tom of about four to five years of age and is the first wild/ non-introduced leopard to be photographed in the Greater Addo Elephant National Park. This has given the rangers at River Bend huge hope and excitement to see who can find this leopard on game drive. We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned for next month's ranger's diary!

 
David Parker

Guide