ZIMBABWE: Hunting the Omay For Elephant & Leopard With Dalton & York Safaris

[rinehart0050]

Finding Mvuu at Red Cliffs...

As I hinted at earlier, ground transfer to camp is actually quite comfortable. Its a 4-5 hour car ride along paved roads (A1 Hwy) from Harare to Kariba. In Kariba, we transferred to a boat for a 1.5 hour ride across the lake to the hunting camp- a great way to start a safari! In the harbor, there were two hippos just feeding along the shore, about 20 meters from our boat! Andy flew his drone over to the hippo, which began to annoy him after a while!

The boat ride to camp was awesome. The lake was calm, with great sunshine. We saw lots of crocs, hippos on land and in the water, and a herd of elephant on the way in. Here's a video of the boat ride... pretty nice!

Jumping right into hunting on Day 1, Dalton and I had discussed what the best options were for leopard bait. While impala might be cheaper, it takes time to get enough baits. The best bet is to get a hippo. This gives you 8 baits from a single animal! My wife and I had already discussed that she would get to shoot all bait animals, so it was off to the races to see what we might find along the banks of the Ume river!

Dalton and York have a sweet spot for hippo... not that you really need one, as there are hippo everywhere!.. near camp, called Red Cliffs, because of the... you guessed it... red cliffs near by. Red Cliffs is located along the Ume river and we found sign of hippo tracks immediately.

Shortly thereafter, we spotted a nice candidate close to the shore. This wasn't the biggest hippo, but he would make great bait for our furry feline friends. We made our way along the shoreline, and then Dalton and my wife stalked in closer to the water. At about 70m, they paused near a bush. The hippo was facing away, so they decided to chance moving in closer to a spot near the shore, about 50m distant from the hippo. As they moved in, the hippo got wise to their plan and submerged.

Opportunity missed. Or so we thought. A quick scan across the water, and we spotted a group of three hippos. There was a female with a calf and a bigger male further away. The male was much bigger than the previous one, but the shot would be more difficult- about 100m, so Dalton decided to go for a seated shot. They scooted down to the water's edge and set up for the shot. My wife was using the Blaser R8, chambered in 375 H&H.

The yellow circle shows the bull:

Dalton expertly coached my wife through the shot set-up and placement. Carefully, she pulled the trigger:

Hit! The hippo flailed about in the shallow section of the river, spraying blood and water. One more shot and he was finished.

Time for recovery! Dalton called up his boat. We all jumped on board and started towards the hippo when we heard a whistle from shore. My wife was stalking down to the water's edge, with a furious look in her eye! How dare we try and recover her hippo without her! Quickly realizing the error of our ways, we returned to shore to pick up one more passenger and then headed out!

Andy sent his drone up for some footage, which conveniently made recovery easier as he quickly spotted the hippo's location in the shallow water. Soon enough we were dragging him towards shore.

After some work, we got a chain hooked up to the hippo's leg and used the trusty Toyota Land Cruiser to pull him onto land. What a brute!

Needless to say, hippo are not small animals! This guy was covered in scars and carried some impressively thick tusks! What a great start to our hunt!

As with all hunting in Africa, its always a team effort. Here's a few photos of the team that made this possible:
(L-R: Trymore, Tongai, Million, Me, Dalton, My Wife, Jim the boat captain, Time, Heath)

Now, unlike other bait animals that you can just hang in a tree, hippos require some work. Their skin is so thick, over an inch in many places, that if the skin is left on, the leopards can't get to the meat and might loose interest. So, we get to work skinning and quartering the hippo, as well as filling the gut bucket... this gut bucket will become the worst of unwanted companions on the back of the truck in the days to come!

My wife is not shy and helped with some of the skinning too!

We now have 8 baits ready to go. Time to choose some trees to hang these baits and get to driving! With this much bait, Dalton had plans to hang baits all over the 1 million acre concession!!

More to come soon!

 

[rinehart0050]

I think your new avatar should carry a "spoiler" warning!

Looking forward to reading about this bruiser.

True! Maybe its just good photoshop... only time will tell!

 

[thriller]

Finding Mvuu at Red Cliffs...

As I hinted at earlier, ground transfer to camp is actually quite comfortable. Its a 4-5 hour car ride along paved roads (A1 Hwy) from Harare to Kariba. In Kariba, we transferred to a boat for a 1.5 hour ride across the lake to the hunting camp- a great way to start a safari! In the harbor, there were two hippos just feeding along the shore, about 20 meters from our boat! Andy flew his drone over to the hippo, which began to annoy him after a while!

The boat ride to camp was awesome. The lake was calm, with great sunshine. We saw lots of crocs, hippos on land and in the water, and a herd of elephant on the way in. Here's a video of the boat ride... pretty nice!

Jumping right into hunting on Day 1, Dalton and I had discussed what the best options were for leopard bait. While impala might be cheaper, it takes time to get enough baits. The best bet is to get a hippo. This gives you 8 baits from a single animal! My wife and I had already discussed that she would get to shoot all bait animals, so it was off to the races to see what we might find along the banks of the Ume river!

Dalton and York have a sweet spot for hippo... not that you really need one, as there are hippo everywhere!.. near camp, called Red Cliffs, because of the... you guessed it... red cliffs near by. Red Cliffs is located along the Ume river and we found sign of hippo tracks immediately.

Shortly thereafter, we spotted a nice candidate close to the shore. This wasn't the biggest hippo, but he would make great bait for our furry feline friends. We made our way along the shoreline, and then Dalton and my wife stalked in closer to the water. At about 70m, they paused near a bush. The hippo was facing away, so they decided to chance moving in closer to a spot near the shore, about 50m distant from the hippo. As they moved in, the hippo got wise to their plan and submerged.

Opportunity missed. Or so we thought. A quick scan across the water, and we spotted a group of three hippos. There was a female with a calf and a bigger male further away. The male was much bigger than the previous one, but the shot would be more difficult- about 100m, so Dalton decided to go for a seated shot. They scooted down to the water's edge and set up for the shot. My wife was using the Blaser R8, chambered in 375 H&H.

The yellow circle shows the bull:

Dalton expertly coached my wife through the shot set-up and placement. Carefully, she pulled the trigger:

Hit! The hippo flailed about in the shallow section of the river, spraying blood and water. One more shot and he was finished.

Time for recovery! Dalton called up his boat. We all jumped on board and started towards the hippo when we heard a whistle from shore. My wife was stalking down to the water's edge, with a furious look in her eye! How dare we try and recover her hippo without her! Quickly realizing the error of our ways, we returned to shore to pick up one more passenger and then headed out!

Andy sent his drone up for some footage, which conveniently made recovery easier as he quickly spotted the hippo's location in the shallow water. Soon enough we were dragging him towards shore.

After some work, we got a chain hooked up to the hippo's leg and used the trusty Toyota Land Cruiser to pull him onto land. What a brute!

Needless to say, hippo are not small animals! This guy was covered in scars and carried some impressively thick tusks! What a great start to our hunt!

As with all hunting in Africa, its always a team effort. Here's a few photos of the team that made this possible:
(L-R: Trymore, Tongai, Million, Me, Dalton, My Wife, Jim the boat captain, Time, Heath)

Now, unlike other bait animals that you can just hang in a tree, hippos require some work. Their skin is so thick, over an inch in many places, that if the skin is left on, the leopards can't get to the meat and might loose interest. So, we get to work skinning and quartering the hippo, as well as filling the gut bucket... this gut bucket will become the worst of unwanted companions on the back of the truck in the days to come!

My wife is not shy and helped with some of the skinning too!

We now have 8 baits ready to go. Time to choose some trees to hang these baits and get to driving! With this much bait, Dalton had plans to hang baits all over the 1 million acre concession!!

More to come soon!

The good news about the bucket is that it lets you know you don’t have COVID.

 

[rinehart0050]

The good news about the bucket is that it lets you know you don’t have COVID.

That is a fact! Conveniently, I've been having some back issues that served as a convenient excuse to ride first class in the cab of the Cruiser, as far away from the smell as possible! Its not bad... as long as the truck doesn't stop...

 

[Ravensview]

Awesome adventure love the video and great pictures as well as the story telling, thanks for sharing, looking forward to more

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats to the wife on the hippo!

 

[Red Leg]

And please pass along to your bride, that is an awesome bull - not what anyone would call "bait."

 

[BRICKBURN]

Dangerous game got a whole new definition that day. Leaving the armed hunter behind on shore. Damn, that was dangerous.
Congratulations on a nice Bull.

 

[rinehart0050]

Here kitty kitty...

With the hippo down, the real work begins. The next few days are consumed with finding leopard tracks and hanging baits. We start on the east side of the Omay, near our camp, with three bait sites along the Ume river. Setting up baits is the grind portion of leopard hunting. Finding the right tree, hanging the bait, dragging the guts, setting up the game cameras, etc. The team, to include our National Parks Ranger Million and Council Scout Time, put in the hard labor, dealing with the gut bucket, to set us up for success.

All this work is done in hopes of finding some sign of leopards in the days to come... or even better, having a bait get hit!

After setting up the baits south of camp, we head north to set up a bait on the flood plains. Dalton knows of a leopard in this area- he may have been shot and injured before. This bait will require a special setup as this leopard has learned not to jump into bait trees from his previous bad experience! On the way to the bait spot, we come across some elephants drinking from a watering hole near the road!

Later, we run into some elephants coming out of the thick jesse for water! This is proving to be a day for elephants! We briefly discuss hunting one of these elephants on the flood plains, but Dalton has a better plan. These are too easy. He wants to hunt some elephant that have been raiding a local village. If we strike out on those elephant, we can always come back here on the last day for an easy elephant. Now this is my type of PH! Not settling for the easy targets- Dalton loves to hunt and so do I! Elephant will wait for another day, but we get to enjoy these bulls none the less!

We continue down the flood plain to a particular thicket. Here, we hang the bait low, actually almost low enough for a hyena to get to. Maybe this will entice the old wounded tom in... we shall see! After a quick lunch, we start to drive back up the flood plain when we run into another family of elephants, this time with a young calf! The bull is not impressed with us and lets us know, giving the Cruiser a mock charge!

We head to another area, nicknamed the baobab pans. There are elephant tracks everywhere and you have to be careful to not sprain an ankle in the deep ruts! This spot is not very appealing. Its hot, dusty, with lots of flies and mosquitos in the area.

While the guys are hanging the bait, Andy asks me where I think we'll see a leopard. While I'd like to pick a scenic river spot, my Army training tells me to always choose the nastiest and least desirable location. I suggest that the baobab pans will be our best bet. Only time will tell!

Here's a picture of a baobab tree that has been carved out by elephants on both sides. The gaping wounds are large enough for us to crawl into, like a cave!

The next day, we head out to the far western side of the Omay, a grueling 2 hour drive across the nastiest dirt track that doesn't even deserve the designation of road or trail. But once we get out there, we're greeted with a great wilderness area, teeming with plains game. We encounter herds of zebra and impala crossing the road. A game rich area like this seems like prime leopard country! 2 more baits go up into trees. One tree in particular is promising, as Dalton has baited it before for lion. There are deep leopard claw marks on the tree - hopefully we can entice this cat in as he patrols his territory!

With the baits hung, the search for leopard sign begins. We return to each bait, starting with those closest to camp. The first few have nothing. Each site is searched for any sign in the vicinity.

Our third bait has not been hit, but we find the the tracks of a big tom. The tracks lead under the bait and continue on down the river! Now the questions start swirling in our minds! Why didn't he take the bait? Were there hyena in the area bothering him? Maybe he showed up too late and has decided to come back later? What to do now? And so the chess game begins!

Dalton decides we need more bait so that we have options. Any PH worth his salt prefers to have a bait or two in the back of the Cruiser just in case! So we hit the road, Dalton trying to prove he's got a second career in rally racing, as we fly back to the west side of the Omay in search of some tasty impala!

We make it out there with a little over an hour before sunset. We check our first bait on this side and find it destroyed, nothing left, just a lone hippo bone with no meat, hanging in the tree. Inspection of the game camera confirms our fears- vultures found the bait despite our leafy camouflaged and devoured it. Not good news. Now we need to find another bait side over here.

With daylight fading fast, we still need to get after some baits. We head towards the river flood plains to try our luck. After some rough stalks through thick bush, my wife takes a nice impala on the flood plains. Perfect, but with the sun rapidly approaching the horizon, our prospects for a second bait seem bleak.

We load the impala in the truck- no need to skin this bait! and start back on the road. Not 2 minutes later, we spot another impala in the thick brush. Quick dismount, short stalk into the bush, and my wife has secured another bait! Well done! Now we have options!

The next morning, we head back to the bait site where we found the tracks. Again, nothing has hit the bait. What the heck?!? A search along the riverbed finds the leopards tracks about half a mile away. And there's female tracks too! Our tom is clearly chasing a lady and has followed her up into the cliffs above us!

We decide to set a second bait here, right over the tracks we found. We find a perfect tree and hang one of our impala. About 50m away, there is a large bush- a perfect blind spot. It will be a blind within a blind! We pre-clear a shooting lane into the bush so that if we set a blind here, we can avoid making too much noise.

Now we just need this darn leopard to hit the bait. Surely mating with his lady will make him hungry right?

Anyway, time will tell. Dalton, never content to settle on a single option, has us head north towards our eastern flood plain and baobab pan baits. We pull up near the bait and Dalton has us wait by the truck. He and Andy go check the bait.

Andy comes back looking dejected. Another miss.

He pulls out his camera and asks me how I'm feeling. Its been a rough day to be honest. One bait destroyed by vultures. Another bait that has a cat just teasing us. But its still early in the hunt. We'll keep checking baits. If we need to, we'll get more bait and try more spots. This is all part of leopard hunting, right?

Andy cracks a smile.

What? What's the joke? What am I missing?

The baits been hit!!

And not just by one leopard- at least two have hit the bait!!!

Andy shows me the tracks. We had literally parked on top of them! There's a big track and a little track. The big track seems to step on top of the little track- maybe a big male following a female?

Dalton comes back to the truck with the SD card. He is very excited! It looks like the leopards have been hitting the bait for the last three nights, starting literally only a few hours after we hung the bait!

We watch the videos. Or, better said, we watch videos of Dalton setting up the game camera. Some how the camera has malfunctioned??!? Can't catch a break it seems! We grab a fresh camera and hang it in the tree.

Before leaving the site, we hang one of the impala up in the tree. We want to make sure these cats have lots of delicious meat to keep them coming back for more!

We head back to camp for a restless night of sleep. Tomorrow.... will it be the southern bait with the cat that teases us and just walks by or will it be the northern bait with two cats hitting it? The anticipation is driving me nuts!

This is leopard hunting!

 

[CAustin]

Thanks for taking us all along on this adventure.

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Thanks for the detailed report and taking us along. Cant wait for more!

 

[rinehart0050]

Which kitty is it going to be??

We head back to our first prospective bait, the southern one, where we now have two baits hanging. On the way in, driving down the hill, we bump into four buffalo, including a really nice duggaboy! Dalton told me at the start of the hunt that he'd saved me a buffalo tag, even though it wasn't one of the original animals we'd discussed hunting... I'd discussed with my wife and we'd decided that she would hunt the buffalo if we got the chance.

But today she'd decided to stay in camp...

So now the opportunity was mine to capitalize upon...

The bulls just stood there looking at us, not more than 60m away. I can feel my double calling to me, begging to be put into action!

Dalton looks at me... should we go for it?

We decide no. We're too close to the leopard bait. And, in all fairness, its not my buff, its my wife's. (returning to camp later and recounting the story to my wife confirmed we made the right choice, as she might have taken me out in lieu of her buffalo!!)

We headed down to the bait site. Nothing. Not a print. Not a scratch on the bait. Nothing.

We're back to a single option now... not a good spot to be in on a leopard hunt! We race north to see about our bait at the Baobab Pans....

Sure enough, its been hit again. This time, they've eaten one of the impala's haunches too!

Dalton checks the game camera- we're in luck! We can see two different leopard hitting the bait! The small one has to reach down to eat the bait, as its not strong enough to pull the large chuck of hippo up. Because of its awkward feeding position, we can't tell if the little one is a male or a female.

Then the video shows us the big male! He manhandles the bait without issue, pulling it up with one paw.

This is our cat! Definitely a shooter! We're going to sit in a blind tonight!!

The next video is surprising... the big tom notices something and quickly exits the tree. What could it be?

We scroll to the next video, only 20 seconds later, which shows a giant gray mass hit the tree, dust flying everywhere, and then we see the distinct outline of an elephant tusk! Apparently an elephant was none too happy with the leopard in the area and charged him while he was in the bait tree!!

We quickly build a blind across the salt pan from the bait, along side a large bush. Hopefully we don't have any elephants visiting our blind tonight! Then its back to camp for a short nap.

Around 3pm, we load up in the truck and set out for our blind. What will tonight bring?

 

[Philip Glass]

Finding Mvuu at Red Cliffs...

As I hinted at earlier, ground transfer to camp is actually quite comfortable. Its a 4-5 hour car ride along paved roads (A1 Hwy) from Harare to Kariba. In Kariba, we transferred to a boat for a 1.5 hour ride across the lake to the hunting camp- a great way to start a safari! In the harbor, there were two hippos just feeding along the shore, about 20 meters from our boat! Andy flew his drone over to the hippo, which began to annoy him after a while!

The boat ride to camp was awesome. The lake was calm, with great sunshine. We saw lots of crocs, hippos on land and in the water, and a herd of elephant on the way in. Here's a video of the boat ride... pretty nice!

Jumping right into hunting on Day 1, Dalton and I had discussed what the best options were for leopard bait. While impala might be cheaper, it takes time to get enough baits. The best bet is to get a hippo. This gives you 8 baits from a single animal! My wife and I had already discussed that she would get to shoot all bait animals, so it was off to the races to see what we might find along the banks of the Ume river!

Dalton and York have a sweet spot for hippo... not that you really need one, as there are hippo everywhere!.. near camp, called Red Cliffs, because of the... you guessed it... red cliffs near by. Red Cliffs is located along the Ume river and we found sign of hippo tracks immediately.

Shortly thereafter, we spotted a nice candidate close to the shore. This wasn't the biggest hippo, but he would make great bait for our furry feline friends. We made our way along the shoreline, and then Dalton and my wife stalked in closer to the water. At about 70m, they paused near a bush. The hippo was facing away, so they decided to chance moving in closer to a spot near the shore, about 50m distant from the hippo. As they moved in, the hippo got wise to their plan and submerged.

Opportunity missed. Or so we thought. A quick scan across the water, and we spotted a group of three hippos. There was a female with a calf and a bigger male further away. The male was much bigger than the previous one, but the shot would be more difficult- about 100m, so Dalton decided to go for a seated shot. They scooted down to the water's edge and set up for the shot. My wife was using the Blaser R8, chambered in 375 H&H.

The yellow circle shows the bull:

Dalton expertly coached my wife through the shot set-up and placement. Carefully, she pulled the trigger:

Hit! The hippo flailed about in the shallow section of the river, spraying blood and water. One more shot and he was finished.

Time for recovery! Dalton called up his boat. We all jumped on board and started towards the hippo when we heard a whistle from shore. My wife was stalking down to the water's edge, with a furious look in her eye! How dare we try and recover her hippo without her! Quickly realizing the error of our ways, we returned to shore to pick up one more passenger and then headed out!

Andy sent his drone up for some footage, which conveniently made recovery easier as he quickly spotted the hippo's location in the shallow water. Soon enough we were dragging him towards shore.

After some work, we got a chain hooked up to the hippo's leg and used the trusty Toyota Land Cruiser to pull him onto land. What a brute!

Needless to say, hippo are not small animals! This guy was covered in scars and carried some impressively thick tusks! What a great start to our hunt!

As with all hunting in Africa, its always a team effort. Here's a few photos of the team that made this possible:
(L-R: Trymore, Tongai, Million, Me, Dalton, My Wife, Jim the boat captain, Time, Heath)

Now, unlike other bait animals that you can just hang in a tree, hippos require some work. Their skin is so thick, over an inch in many places, that if the skin is left on, the leopards can't get to the meat and might loose interest. So, we get to work skinning and quartering the hippo, as well as filling the gut bucket... this gut bucket will become the worst of unwanted companions on the back of the truck in the days to come!

My wife is not shy and helped with some of the skinning too!

We now have 8 baits ready to go. Time to choose some trees to hang these baits and get to driving! With this much bait, Dalton had plans to hang baits all over the 1 million acre concession!!

More to come soon!

What a great hunt and footage. I’ll be there again next year and cant wait for the boat ride in. I chartered a plane last time so that will be a nice change of scenery. Are you at Ume camp?

 

[revturbo9967]

I know one thing, I wont be able to compete with this type of hunting report. So much detail. I love all of the videos.

 

[rinehart0050]

What a great hunt and footage. I’ll be there again next year and cant wait for the boat ride in. I chartered a plane last time so that will be a nice change of scenery. Are you at Ume camp?

Back in the States now, but yes. We were at Ume Camp and hunted Omay North. There was another hunter in Omay South while we were there.

 

[buck wild]

Following of course until we fly out Wednesday evening to start our own hunt with Dalton and York in the same camp ! It was great talking with you yesterday.

And I agree with Revturbo. Although I can do a pretty good hunt report myself, this one is turning into AH Epic and you haven't even got to the good stuff I know is to come !

 

[jasyblood]

I’ve been looking forward to this report ever since I read that you guys were going. Can’t wait to hear all about it!!

 

[rinehart0050]

Sitting at the salt pans...

After leaving camp at 3pm, we're settled into the blind by 4pm. Its a cramped affair, with me, Dalton, Andy, and Andy's camera taking up every last inch of space. No room to move! But that's ok, its time to find out what the deal is with these two leopards hitting this bait!

Time passes slowly. After a bit, a duck flies in. Then a few more. Eventually we've got an idyllic scene to watch. But we're not here for ducks!

As sunset nears, we hear the grunt of a leopard. Everyone is on edge, searching, squinting into the fast approaching darkness. Dalton is looking at the bait through a thermal sight. They're great for finding animals in the dark, but play hell on your night vision.

I catch a shadow moving between two bushes that looked like a cat. I squeeze Dalton's arm and whisper "he's here..."

And then I see another shadow move to the edge of the grass and lay down. What is going on here? We realized that it wasn't two males at this bait. It was a male and a female, sharing a fine meal after an evening of heavy mating!

The female jumps up into the tree and begins to work on the bait, while the male continues to lounge near by. We'd been concerned that it might be tough to distinguish between the large and small cat in the dark. No such worries. The size difference is significant, with the female thin and small, while the male is big and bulky.

And then something unexpected happens. In the last bit of light, I can still make out the female, but have lost sight of the male. And then another shadow appears, further to our right.

What is this third shadow? It keeps its distance, unmoving. The female stops feeding and jumps down from the tree. The big male and the female head off into the bushes, where they begin violently mating!

And then the third shadow moves to the tree and jumps up to the bait! This shadow is about the size of the female. And now the story starts to become clear...

As the male and female mate nearby, the young male begins to tear at the bait. He's taking advantage of the distracted male to steal from their dinner plate!!

We can't believe it! We have three leopards all hitting the same bait!!

Here's a clip from the thermal, where you can see the female on the bait, the large male relaxing, and the small male hiding:

The mating continues uninterrupted while the young male feasts! After a long while, the grunting and growling ceases and the young male disappears from the tree. At this point, all is complete darkness, so we only know what is happening from what Dalton tells us.

Dalton thinks the big male is in the tree now. We will wait for him to relax, stand up, and offer a perfect broadside shot. In the inky darkness, the leopard's ripping on the bait sounds like its only five feet away! The darkness amplifies all sounds!

Andy has his camera set up on a tripod and set for ultra low light conditions. Here's some of the video he was able to capture (none of this was visible to the naked eye):

Dalton continues to watch through the thermal, waiting for the right moment to come.

Not this time. The leopard jumps from the tree and finds his lady. The noisy copulating continues with renewed vigor! Meanwhile, the young male is back to steal some more bites!

While the sounds of leopards mating was interesting to start, now I feel trapped into listening to the audio-only tracks of a marathon leopard sex tape. Don't they get tired? Aren't they just a little hungry?

I loose track of time, as the leopards continue to bang away! I thought leopard hunting was supposed to be a quiet affair?? Every few minutes, the cats pause to catch their breath. Then they're right back at it.

Things quiet down and we can hear the young leopard vacate the tree. Eventually, we hear footsteps behind the blind. Have some hyenas come in to ruin our night? Surely not elephants? Dalton indicates that the young male is laying no more than 15 feet from our blind, off to our right!!

Then Dalton gives me the signal to get ready. The big male must be back in the tree! I ready myself, turn on my illuminated reticle to the lowest setting, and strain to catch a glimpse of anything in the darkness...

We'd discussed in advance that Dalton would turn on the red light so that I could find my target, but that I will wait until he gives the command to shoot. We want the leopard in a perfect broadside for the shot.

The light comes on and after a few moments, my eyes adjust and I can see the leopard. And then he jumps from the tree.

Darn. What happened? Did we make a noise? Did the light spook him somehow? Is he gone forever? Dalton shuts off the red light.

A few moments later, the leopard is back!

Dalton cautiously waits for the leopard to start feeding and then turns on the light. Same result! The leopard jumps from the tree! What the heck is going on?

This sequence of events repeats at least two or three more times. Then the leopard looses interest and goes to find his lady. The sex tape resumes at full volume! He's letting out his frustration at having his meal interrupted!

Dalton whispers that he's not sure what's up with this cat. Maybe he knows the program? Maybe he knows the plan? Maybe we've got a leopard that hates red lights?

All the while the groaning and growling of feline ecstasy continues to disrupt the usual nighttime quiet.

After about twenty minutes of furious sex, silence resumes. The big leopard is back in the tree! He's hungry!

We try the red light again. Same result. But as soon as the light goes out, he's back in the tree!

Dalton decides to try something different. We'll make an attempt with a torch, see if he's just sensitive to red light.

The white light flashes on and before I can really get my bearings, the cat is gone again.

Oi but this is frustrating! Our leopard has returned to his lady and the sex continues. I begin to wonder at their stamina! How are they not exhausted? How are they not rubbed raw?? Meanwhile the young male returns to the tree for a few more snacks.

I have lost track of time. I know only the sounds of leopards mating and insects buzzing. And then a new sound, a strange howl accompanied by footsteps behind us.

The footsteps circle around the blind to our right. The leopards are quiet now, seeming to rest. The footsteps resume. And then we hear a growl and a deep bark and a loud crashing sound. What the heck is going on out there??

As Dalton related later (he was able to watch the whole affair through the thermal scope), a hyena had approached the resting female leopard. As he prepared to antagonize her, the big male leopard stormed forward and slapped him across the face! The confrontation was over almost sooner than it began, with the hyena retreating to avoid further wrath from the leopard.

This encounter seemed to mark the end of our hopes for the night. There was a bit more leopard sex, but then things went quiet as they left the area.

After a time, Dalton indicated that we should exit the blind. Rather than calling up the truck and risk disturbing the leopards that were likely not far away, Dalton led us the couple kilometers to the truck. I won't lie, this walk was a bit unnerving. While I marveled at the crystal clear milky way in the night's sky, I couldn't help wondering where a lion or pack of hyenas might jump out and ambush us!

Luckily, we made it back to the truck safely. Heath, the appie, asked if we'd seen any leopard, surmising the worst from our worn out expressions. He and the trackers were blown away to hear that we had spent the last nine hours with three leopards!!

Too bad our big male seems to hate red light! Dalton will have his work cut out for him, trying to figure out how to crack this nut! We head back to camp for a short sleep. We'll be back on the truck first thing tomorrow morning, checking other bait spots and coming up with a plan to deal with our light-jumping leopard!

More adventures and excitement to come in our next installment!

 

[rinehart0050]

***NOTE***

The videos are pretty dark and not edited, but if you watch in a dark room, you will be able to clearly see the leopard!

 

[TennJay]

This is amazing. The written story by itself has me on the edge my seat. The videos put it way over the top!!!