A sunrise drive at Sabi Sands, a consortium of private landholdings just outside Kruger Park in eastern South Africa, produced some electrifying action between two leopards. The nine of us were quietly watching this young female leopard from an open safari vehicle. She had hung what was left of her nyala kill high in a tree, and was lazing with a full belly on a bank at eye level to us. Unbeknownst to us, she caught sight of an old male leopard across a gully. He had come to steal last night’s kill. Her head shot up; her pupils narrowed to pinpoints, and it seemed she was trying to stare a hole in me! The hair on my arms stood up, and I was riveted and more than a little freaked out. The realization that she was watching another cat dawned only after I got the shot. Her golden eyes with seaglass green inner circles; the rising sun playing on her richly spotted pelt; her piercing stare all conspired to make a near-perfect shot.

Julie Zickefoose
Artist/Naturalist
South Africa | Birding and Wildlife