Its rare to encounter a leopard in the
Cape Fold mountains. Even rarer to see one during the day. And rarer
still to see one running for its life.
It was 10am, I was up in the mountains
recording behavior of a family of Cape Rockjumpers. I'd been up
since 3am. So I had to rub my eyes when suddenly on the opposite
slope of the valley a sleek figure trotted up from out of the stream
bed. It didn't take long for it to crest the rocky ridge – as it
was trotting, basically going as fast as one can go through the low
cover of spikey branches and loose rocks. Now and again it would stop
to look over its shoulder. It looked all in the world like it was
being pursued. And what in these parts could be chasing a leopard
except a bigger leopard!
I waited with anticipation to see what
would appear. And imagine my surprise when instead of a monster
leopard or pack of howling hounds, who should appear but Christina –
our volunteer out from Aberdeen helping with the bird study – who
is very slight of frame and can't weigh more than 50kg! She must rank
among the least scary people I know – but apparently leopards don't
think so.
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| Run for your life! |
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| Is she still after me? |
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| She's so scary - gotta keep going! |
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| Help! she's still after me! |
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| Getting tired now... hope I'll have enough energy to get away... |
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| Who could have the leopard on the run? Why, its oh so scary Christina |
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The Cape Rockjumpers didn't seem to notice anything
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