Leopards

Leopards lead almost entirely solitary lives. They will come together for a few days during mating before going their separate ways. Normally the male has little further contact with his own cubs and may kill them if they threaten to take over his territory. He will also kill the offspring of another male in order to bring the mother back into oestrous – over half of all leopard cubs are killed by adult males. Females will raise their cubs until they are around two years old or so before leaving them to fend for themselves and seeking a new mate. But the maternal bonds are strong, and offspring sometimes have reunions with their mothers.

Seeing leopards in the wild is a relatively rare event, especially finding them in the open and in situations that lend themselves to clear close-up photography. Many people go on week-long safaris without seeing one. Author, Richard, went on several safaris over forty years or so and also worked as a ranger in Kenya for a short time without getting any really decent close-up shots of these elusive and secretive animals. However, the images below were all taken in the last three years and have more than made up for the famine of the early years.