SAMBURU GHOST LEOPARDS
Samburu and Buffalo Springs are two small wildlife reserves in the north of Kenya separated by the river Eason Ngiro and the local town is Archers Post. They are both small reserves but well worth a visit for the abundance of wildlife and the number of species. They are particularly known for the large elephant population and the leopard.
Leopards are always on my list of things to see but the level of success has varied over the years. Some years I’ve had no luck and others have resulted in seeing three different leopards in three hours.
On one occasion I was on my last day and had lost hope of seeing a leopard when a call came over the radio to say that some friends had sighted a leopard up a tree. We were on the other side of the river and shot off at break neck speed to get the the leopard. It took us 20 mins at speed limit breaking speed to get there. As we arrived, in our haste, we overshot the location, got too close and the leopard jumped out the tree and was gone! More haste less speed.
My first sighting of a leopard in Buffalo Springs was on arrival in the dark and a leopard was sighted on a hill near the lodge dragging a kill. It was good to see but no opportunity for a photo, another ghost.
The best trip involved sighting three separate leopards in the space of three hours. The first was an early morning encounter when I came across a young leopard dosing on a fallen tree. There was no one else about, there’s something special about seeing a leopard on your own, its your leopard for that moment in time. I spent over half an hour with the leopard yawning and stretching,me and the leopard, before it decided I’d had enough images and it climbed down and vanished among the low vegetation.
Leopards are very smart. One sighting involved several hours tracking a young leopard around the edges of the river without success. I was about to give up when I saw what I thought was the leopard climb into a low bush. The bush was only about fifteen foot across but dense and it was virtually impossible to see the leopard until I noticed its tail hanging down. I sat for two hours waiting for the leopard to appear from the bush. Half dozing, me not the leopard, I glanced to my left to see the leopard coming towards me with a monitor lizard in its mouth. It must have sneaked out of the bush and headed back down to the river.
It climbed onto a fallen tree and sat with the lizard for a while, every now and then it would lick the lizard and start to eat it but would then throw it down, I guess lizard doesnt taste that nice. I sat with the leopard for another hour and then left it to its unappetising meal.
The leopards in Samburu are like bars of silver, bright and shining unlike those in Mara which are more like bars of gold, warm and glowing.
