The one that decides your trip

Leopard

The most widespread big cat in Africa and the hardest to see. Where leopards are in the parks I know, why the tree matters, and what to do when you find one.

The leopard is Africa's most widespread big cat and the one most people drive past without knowing. It lives alone, is mostly nocturnal and does not want to be seen. Its rosettes, the open spots in its coat, break its outline into light and shadow, and even from a few metres away it is hard to make out.

Look up. A leopard drags its prey into a tree to keep it safe from hyenas and lions. That habit is the most useful thing you can know about it: a carcass in the branches means the leopard is nearby, and the chances are high that it will come back.

It is also the reason for the saying that a safari cannot be planned. Nobody sees a leopard because they meant to. You see one because you were in the right place at the right time and may just have caught sight of it.

Lives

Leopards are solitary. If you come across two together, they are mating, or it is a mother with her cub.

A female usually gives birth to two cubs, sometimes one, rarely three. She hides them in rock crevices or dense bush and keeps carrying them to new places. Even so, many do not survive: hyenas, lions and strange males are a constant danger, and often only one of the cubs makes it to independence, sometimes none. So if you see a mother with a cub, you have seen something very special.

Active

Mostly at night, plus around sunrise and sunset. By day it likes to rest in a tree or in the shade of a thicket.

Look for

Look into the trees along rivers and dry riverbeds. Leopards like to rest in broad, shady crowns, especially marula, jackalberry, sycamore fig and Natal mahogany. Also watch for prey hanging in the branches, or a tail dangling from a bough. In low thicket a leopard is almost impossible to spot: either you notice a movement, or you see the white tip of the tail flicker briefly through the grass.

Range

Whether in the semi-desert of the Kalahari, in riverine forest or in the bush: the leopard copes almost everywhere, which makes it Africa's most adaptable big cat.

When you actually see them

Best in the first and last hour of light. Leopards are mostly nocturnal, so dusk and dawn are when you find them still or again on their feet. Early in the morning they are often on the way back from the night's hunt, walking along roads and riverbeds or looking for a shady tree for the day.

If you are out from the moment the gate opens, you have the best chance of seeing them still on the move. As soon as the sun rises they withdraw into the thicket or the treetops and rest. Then they are where they are hardest to find. In the late afternoon, when it cools down, they become active again: they stretch, climb down from the tree and set off. You can still see them at dusk before the gates close. And they are a highlight of any guided night drive.

Where you find them

For the camera

The light in a tree is contrasty and the cat is spotted. Expose for the animal and let the background go — trying to hold both usually loses the leopard.
They watch you. A leopard looking straight down the lens is the frame, and it lasts about two seconds.
If it is walking, get ahead of it rather than following. A leopard coming towards you is a photograph; a leopard leaving is a receipt.

Questions people ask

Which park gives me the best chance?

In the south of Kruger National Park. Leopard density is especially high here, and the dense road network follows the rivers, exactly where leopards most like to rest and hunt. South Luangwa National Park in Zambia is also famous for its leopards, and many experts count it among the best places on the continent.

Are leopards dangerous to self-drivers?

For nobody who stays in their vehicle. Leopards avoid people. That is the main reason they are seen so rarely, and also why an encounter stays something special.