Leopards and Warthogs

Well, if the last park was all about elephants, this one (for us) will be all about leopards. It can be very rare to find leopards in the national park. The previous OAT group visiting Kafue didn’t see any for their three-day visit — so we know we are lucky.

The grasslands were covered in mist as the sunrise glowed on the horizon for our morning game drive. The Puku, another type of antelope, were out grazing. We suspected a predator may be nearby since they were all looking one direction, and not at us. Sure enough, as we drove around some more, we found a leopard tracking a lone puku. But we were told that since the puku had its eyes on the leopard the whole time, the leopard was unlikely to attack. The puku can usually outrun a leopard, and are only caught if surprised. We were able to follow the leopard for awhile, going off-road in our jeep. That was exciting!

More driving took us past several different kinds of birds, more puku and impalas, and several interesting trees. The Ilala palm was originally planted by the Portuguese to guide them along a route to water, but now the palms are scattered all over. The fruit can be used to make wine, and the inner leaves are like cabbage (hearts of palm?). We saw a Giant Kingfisher catch a fish.

We had just rounded a large termite mound when we heard squealing and saw a warthog running in circles at the base of a tree, clearly agitated. Up in the tree was a different leopard that had just caught it’s morning meal—a baby warthog. The mom walked away and the leopard stayed in the tree staring at us, all the while with the dead warthog in its jaws. Eventually it must have wanted to eat in peace, so it climbed down and walked into the bushes with its prey. The circle of life in action.

Back at camp, we went on a little walk around camp, and were taught about more of the native plants and their medicinal and culinary uses.

The evening game drive was relatively uneventful, except for nearly being charged by an elephant! Apparently, the mom didn’t like us getting close to her baby. We were sitting in our jeep on the road, but mom seemed to be getting agitated—swinging her trunk around. Then suddenly, she flared out her ears, took some running steps toward us and trumpeted loudly. We cleared out in a hurry!

Every evening at sundown, we have a little happy hour called a Sundowner. Tonight we stopped near the river and watched saddle-billed stork and hippos in the water as the sun glowed orange on the horizon.Read more