The BIg Five: Leopard #1

 

When you go on safari, one of the first things you will hear is how everyone wants to be able to say they've seen "The Big Five." That means lions, African elephants, Cape buffalo, leopards, and rhinoceroses.

The Sabi Sand Wildtuin in northern South Africa is famous for its large population of leopards. I was able to photograph three different leopards while I was there. They are stunningly beautiful, and clearly very used to the presence of humans with cameras.

All of these photos are of the same young male. He was sitting on top of a termite mound, just waiting for the sun to go down so he could begin hunting. He's just a tiny bit out of focus (a persistent challenge now that my eyes have finally realized how old they are!), but I love the intensity of his gaze and the beautiful color of the light on his fur.

You can see the sun on his rump in this shot—and that impossibly green grass and the green reflected on the side of his face. I'm not sure why it looks that way. I did some color correction, but the untouched original shows the same bright green. I'll be researching that one....

Shortly after I snapped this shot, he got up and walked to the other side of the termite mound, gazing directly into the setting sun.

 

Young male leopard, Sabi Sand Wildtuin, South Africa, 2016

To learn more about leopards, visit the African Wildlife Foundation.