My name is Austin Stevens.
I’ve spent my entire life photographing dangerous animals.
Austin: “Bring your hands near…ah!
And that’s enough venom to kill an adult human being, no problem at all.”
But one elusive killer has always escaped me so this time I’m risking everything.
Austin: “This is crazy.
But I want to get that close that I’m on the bonnet.
Hope it’s not the last photo I ever take.”
Of all the world’s great predators, one has always eluded me.
An animal so secretive that, in all my time in the wild, I’ve only ever caught glimpses
of it.
But I’ve accepted an assignment to get close-up shots of this dangerous and mysterious beast.
And I’m doing everything I can to make sure I’m fully prepared.
Austin: “There’s a village up ahead.
I can see a little shop there.
This might be one of the last places I can get some supplies.
I might just pull in there and see what they’ve got.”
This is a wild place, where people live in the shadow of a notorious killer – the leopard.
Austin: “Morning.”
Shopkeeper: “Hi, how are you?”
Austin: “Hey, I’m good.
Can you help me with some supplies?”
Known as the silent hunter, it’s feared by many.
But few people have ever even seen one, which makes what happens next even more surprising.
Austin: “He’s just been telling me an amazing
story and he’s got something to show me.”
The shopkeeper has evidence to back up his story.
The leopards are potential man-eaters.
Austin: “Just look at that.
Massive hole in the skin here.
Apparently this leopard actually took a goat herder, grabbed him and took him down.
But luckily, his friend was nearby.
And his friend actually ran and picked up one of these steel gurters that they use for
fencing and ran and heroically saved his friend, pushed it right into the leopard, killed him.
That’s amazing.
I mean, just goes to show, these animals are beautiful and they’re usually elusive.
But if they get into contact with humans, it could be very dangerous.
This is potentially a very dangerous animal.”
Austin: “How much do I owe you?”
That is an amazing story.
There’s no doubt that what I’m attempting to do could be very difficult indeed.
Although people here, live under constant threat from these man-eaters, chances are
they’ll never encounter one.
Sightings of leopards are extremely rare.
Austin: “I’ve worked in Africa all my life and
I’ve got about half a dozen pictures of leopards.
They’re that elusive, hard to find.
This assignment, I want to get really close to leopards.
If I can, I’d like to find a female with cubs and get photographs.”
But that’s easier said than done.
Superbly camouflaged by its spotted coat, a leopard can stalk unnoticed through the
landscape.
Then, it savagely picks off its prey.
Pound for pound, the leopard is one of the most powerful and efficient killers.
Going on foot in leopard country would be suicidal.
So I’ll be working from a sturdy truck.
But to make sure I’ve got no obstructions when it comes to taking photographs, I’ve
had to choose one with an open top – a choice that’s not entirely safe, nor entirely comfortable.
These rough tracks are taking me towards the place famous for its big cats.
A place where leopards are said to be active by day, which increases my chances of getting
a decent shot.
But it’s a long, long way from home.
All in all, I’ve come nearly a thousand miles from Namibia to the very edge of South
Africa – to Londolozi, a protected area, part of a vast African wilderness.
It’s a stretch of spectacular Savanna.
Fed year-round by the mighty Sand River.
Austin: “This region, where I’ve come to find
the leopards, is ideal.
It has everything a leopard needs – plenty of bush, plenty of game.
If I’m going to find a leopard anywhere, it’s gonna be in this area.”
But there’s one spot in particular I want to start with.
A place just a few miles from here that’s said to be a favourite haunt for leopards.
According to my map, the best direct route is via this dry riverbed.
Hopefully, it will lead me right into the middle of leopard country.
This is the perfect place for Leopards.
Austin: “And they feel very secure down here; they’re
well hidden.
And there’s all these big trees, so if they get a kill, they can take it up into the tree,
keep it away from lions and hyenas.
I think I’ve got a good chance of finding something over here.”
0p
Austin: “Look at the size of that guy.”
Austin: “Look at that.
Look at that.
Got him.
Oh, he’s still holding on to stuff here.
I’m looking for cats, but this is not what I had in mind.
This is a tiger, but it’s a tiger snake.
And it’s one of the most beautiful snakes you can find.
I love these snakes.
And look at their eyes.
They’ve got these beautiful eyes and they’ve got a beautiful tongue.
This is one beautiful snake, eh?
You are gorgeous.
It’s a venomous snake.
He’s back-fang.
He can bite; he has got venom.
But they’re not considered dangerous to human beings.
They feed on lizards, mostly.
And that venom, oh!
Would be quite good to bite a lizard with.
Hey, are you cross with me?
Oh, he wants to bite me.
I’ve gotta get a few pictures of this.
Here we go.
I gotcha.
Are you gonna pose for me?
Let’s see.
I’m gonna put him right back where I found him.
Let’s see if I can get a few pictures without getting bitten too often.
Are you gonna behave?”
Austin: “Go on, there we go.
Let me see your face.
There we go.
There we go.
Do like that.
They’re so agile.
They’re like a spring; they shoot out and sun, as soon as you, you bring your hands
near…ah!
He bit me right on the finger.
Hey, don’t do that.
There we go.
Oh, he’s staying angry.
He didn’t like being messed with.
Come on, I need another picture.
Just a few more pictures.
Come on, come on, come on.
See, he gives me a bite and he says, ‘That’s enough.
I’ve had this guy now.
I wanna get outta here.’
Get one more shot.
There we go.
That’s it.
Alright.
Well he’s been so good, you know?
He’s tolerated all my nonsense.
So I’m just gonna let him go, back up to where he was, and I’ll get on with my search
for leopards.
Thanks boy.
Enjoy your day.
That was great.
What a fantastic snake.
Beautiful guy.
And look, he actually bit me.
Actually got his fangs in there.
I hope that’s not a bad omen for the leopards to come.”
The riverbed takes me deep into the bush.
I’m trying to get to a leopard den, which I’ve been told is still active.
I have the coordinates, but it’s ot that easy to find.
As best I can tell, I’m going to have to break out of the riverbed and forge a way
directly through the scrub.
But in the African bush, you leave the beaten path at your peril.
Austin: “Look at that.
I’ve ridden right into a herd of elephants.
And I’m looking down there and now suddenly I’ve got elephants all around.
And there’s more over there and there’s more on the side here.
Elephants can be dangerous if you startle them, frighten them.
Get on the wrong side of the elephant, take this truck out like a shot.
They’re crossing right in front of me.”
But it’s the one behind me that tells me it’s time to get going.
More concerned with elephants than the track ahead, I suddenly find myself in very rough
terrain.
Austin: ”Ah!
I need to get through the worst, then try and get my bearings.
Hang on.
I’ve got a leopard.
She just crossed right in front of my car.
I’m right behind her and she’s showing no sign of panic.
She’s heading for thick bush.
Difficult to see, but it looks like a female.”
The leopard’s slender build suggests I’ve struck lucky.
Austin: “I can just see her in the grass.
But she’s still moving away.
It’s so hard to know what to do when they’re moving all the time.
You’re hoping they’ll settle somewhere.
And there’s a big mound on the right and I was hoping she’d go up on there.
But she seems to be going right past.
You don’t know what leopards are doing open in the day like this.
She might be looking for a mate.
I’m gonna go a little bit further and see if I can follow her.”
Austin: “The bush is so thick.
The leopard’s camouflaged so perfect, she just melts away into this.
I’m closed in.
The bush is just too thick here and I’ve lost her completely.
She’s somewhere right here and she’s gone.”
It’s like chasing a ghost through the grass.
And it’s leading me further and further into the unknown.
Austin: ”There’s a bit of an opening through here.
I’m gonna try and push the vehicle further.
I’m sure she’s somewhere right inside there.
I just can’t see her.
Give it one more try.”
But luck is with me today.
Austin: ”I can see, I can see spots.
It looks like it might have finally settled down.
It’s actually lying down.”
This is astonishing.
It’s actually the closest I’ve ever been to a leopard.
I can’t believe my luck.
Being this close let’s me get a proper look.
Austin: “It’s a young male.
I was hoping for a female.”
Austin: “Isn’t that absolutely beautiful?
A most incredible looking animal.
He’s keeping a weary eye on me.
Thanks boy.”
Fantastic.
But what I want is photos of a mother and cub.
And male leopards are solitary animals.
I push on towards the den site.
Austin: “That’s it.
That looks like it.
This is what I’ve been looking for.
I mean, I’ve been speaking to the locals and they’ve informed me that hill, that
kopji, plenty of leopards are spotted.
And not only that, it’s a favourite denning site.”
A kopji is a kind of volcanic island erupting from the sandy Savanna, and its granite sides
provide perfect denning habitat.
But to search it properly, I’m going to have to go on foot and I’m weary about leaving
the relative safety of the vehicle.
Leopards don’t tend to attack until they’re within five metres of their victim.
But in this terrain, it could be closer than that, and I might never even see it.
Up close, the kopji is larger than it looked, with plenty of nooks and crannies – any
one of which might contain a deadly predator.
Austin: “Lion feces everywhere here.
That’s not a good thing for leopard.”
Africa’s biggest cats are sworn enemies.
A lion will deliberately target leopard cubs, so these lion feces are not a good sign.
Austin: “Oh, hang on.
Something here.
Oh, look at this.
Wow, that’s one of the thick-tail scorpions as well.
Look at the size.
It looks like a female.
It looks like she might be gravid as well.
These are highly venomous scorpions.
I mean, all scorpions are dangerous; all are venomous.
But these, with the thick tails and the small pinchers, that’s what you look for.
That’s the most dangerous scorpion.
Oh, she’s stinging the forceps.
I’d love to just get a grip on this tail if I can, but it’s so difficult.
Then I could control it, the animal a little bit.
Look, look how it’s pushing with the needle all the time.
Oh, come on, come on, come on, come on.
There we go, there we go.
Can I do this?
Can I do this?
I’m a bit nervous of doing this.
I wanna get this stinger.
Consider this is highly venomous.
Got it.
I’ve got it.
Okay girl, you can hang onto my finger.
There we go.
I’m gonna let go.
Okay, see that.
Scorpions are really nice.
They don’t get mad at you for no reason at all.
I let go; she didn’t try and sting me.”
Austin: “I wanna try and show you the venom if it’s
possible while I’ve got her here.
Look at that, I got a drop of venom to come out there.
I mustn’t bring my finger near there because that needle-sharp spike over there will go
right into my finger.
And that drop of venom is all you need.
That’s the poison, that’s the venom.
She’s settling down again.
She’s settling down.
Let me just see.
Alright.
Down you go.
Down you go.
Don’t sting me.
Just take a walk.
Okay, well that’s enough fooling around with a scorpion like this.
Like I said, they’re pretty dangerous animals.
Put her back where she was, let her settle down.
Well, just a little something in between my leopard search.
I’d sort of forgotten about leopards now that I found lion feces.
Lost track of the leopards all together.
So let’s go on and see what I can find.”
If there were leopards here, they’re long gone.
It may well be that the lions scared them off.
The mother leopard will move her newborn cubs at the first sniff of danger, every day if
need be.
I need to rethink.
My whole focus was how to get to this kopji and find the leopard den.
But now I’m here, it seems there are no leopards to be found.
I decide to sleep on it.
[hyenas calling]
Austin: “You hear that?
Hyenas calling, hear?”
[hyenas calling]
Austin: “I found a lot of sign of hyena today.
I also found sign of lion, all around this kopji.
And that’s a bit of a problem because I think, if there’s been lions here, I’m
not gonna find leopards.
And I’ve searched everywhere in the rocks here.
I found no sign of a den.
And it’s getting late and it’s getting dark.
So I don’t particularly want to travel in this light.”
[hyenas calling]
Austin: “Hear them again?
It’s hyenas calling still.
Far away.”
Tomorrow, in the relative safety of daylight, I’ll work out what to do next.
Getting the lay of the land first thing in the morning.
My next step suddenly becomes clear.
A long line of impala are heading across the plane.
Chances are they’re heading for a watering hole.
Antelope, like impala, are a big cat’s favourite food.
This might just be a leopard haunt after all.
I decide to scour the area for tracks.
My plan is to keep a record of any sightings to narrow down a sweet spot.
But finding them still won’t be easy.
Leopards patrol up to twenty-five miles a day, seldom following the same path.
I’ve got to keep my eyes peeled for any clue I can spot.
Austin: “I saw movement here at this ant hill, old
termite mound.
There may be a leopard lair, maybe a den.
I can  see holes in it.
No, it’s not leopard; it’s a wild dog.
He’s right here, he’s not even paying me any attention.
He’s laying down again.
They don’t seem to be worried about the car.
That’s my best chance.
If I got out of here, different story altogether.
These animals would be gone like a shot.
Look, he’s got his head raised up again.
There appears to be a big hole up here.
I think this is where the main den side is, right up here.
One is standing guard over here.
I’m gonna wait it out a bit and see what I see and take a few pictures meanwhile.”
Soon, more wild dogs materialize from the bush.
Unlike the solitary leopard, wild dogs live in big packs – up to thirty strong.
But numbers like these are increasingly rare.
This is one of the most endangered carnivores in Africa.
Austin: “This is beyond anything I could have imagined,
getting right near wild dogs.
Here comes the female.
There’s the mother.
You can see how swollen her teats are.
I can hear babies calling, I can hear pups calling.”
Spotting wild dogs is even rare than spotting leopards, and sightings of their pups are
almost unheard of.
Austin: “Five pups, I’m counting five pups.
They’re all around here.”
Austin: “Incredible.
It’s almost like she brought them out to meet me.”
I’ve never seen more than a glimpse of these wonderful animals before.
So to stumble on this scene of domestic bliss is absolutely unbelievable.
Austin: “You know, it’s very rare that a litter,
that the whole litter reaches adulthood.
They usually get killed off by other animals.
I’ve got five healthy babies here.
This is phenomenal, astonishing.
I’m so excited, so pleased about this.
I’ll leave them to it now.
Gotta look for cats.”
If I could see a scene like that with a leopard, then I’d really have something.
But the rest of the day proves fruitless.
Still, I’m not finished here.
I decide to find a patch of shade and set up my headquarters for the next couple of
days.
Austin: “Well that’s just about done.
I’ve got a nice thorny boma.
I built around my vehicle here.
And I’m totally mobile.
I can lift this tent or drop it any time, move in and out.
And I’m right in the middle of leopard country, so I can go out and work, come back in my
own time.
This is not to protect me against leopards; this is for hyenas.
Hyenas will come into a camp, so I built this boma to give myself a bit of protection.
Other than that, perfect working area.”
Tomorrow I’ll go and find myself a leopard.
Austin: “The bush is thick, and I’ve been hammering
through it.
And these big trees, I’ve been actually bending them over going down.
And some of the branch jammed in here, pulled the wires off the starter motor.
They’re already brittle from being close to the manifold.
I’m just joining them up again.
That’s the problem with this heavy terrain; you’ve gotta be careful.
If you mess up, you get stuck in this bush forever.
I hope that does it.”
To track down a female leopard, I’m staking out a prime big cat site.
And over the next few days, my patience pays off.
I start finding leopards everywhere.
Austin: “She’s right here, on my right.
In the grass.
Flat, I could hardly see her.”
But still no sign of any leopard cubs.
And getting good photographs is proving frustratingly tricky.
Austin: “I got her for a few shots, but she’s
moving over into thick stuff ahead.”
And just when I’m coming to grips with grabbing glimpses at a distance, they change the rules.
Austin: “She’s right at my car.
She’s so close, I’ve got the wrong lens.
I need a wide lens.”
The good news is I found the sweet spot.
A mix of trees and open grassland teeming with Leopards.
But to get my photos, I might have to adapt my methods.
Austin: “It’s been difficult trying to get these
photographs.
I’ve been having a lot of problems following these leopards.
The bush is just too thick.
I might have to reconsider.
I might have to actually leave the Land Rover, go on foot, follow the leopard.
This is very dangerous.
Everybody knows don’t be alone in the bush with a leopard.
But I’m not shooting the leopard, it’s not wounded; it’s got no reason to attack
me.
If I follow it very carefully, I might get the shots I want.
It would be a bit risky, though.”
To find my leopards I’ve worked out a routine.
First I check the places I saw the leopards the day before and try and pick up their trail.
But if that doesn’t work, then I drive the roads and riverbeds in search of fresh prints.
Austin: “Looking down at the track here, it’s
quite sandy.
And it looks like there might be leopard prints here.
I mean, they look like they’re quite fresh.
Yeah, I’m sure it’s leopard prints.
It’s hard for me to tell just how long ago…there, there, there.
He’s actually coming right back onto the track.
That’s the tracks I’ve been seeing down here.
It’s right now.
He’s making them right now.
He doesn’t seem too perturbed.
I’m gonna get a little bit closer, see if I can get up to him.
This is incredible.
I mean, a leopard walking right in front of me, not paying me much attention.
This guy’s just walking with tail up in the air all the time.
Looks like a scorpion moving along.”
Austin: “He keeps stopping and just marking, marking
all the way along.
Obviously this is his territory.
Leopards have got large territories.
The males have got much bigger territories than the females.
It’s just incredible that I can actually stay behind this guy.
Oh, he’s marking again.
They mark prominent bushes and trees.
Look at that.
He just gives a shot and moves on again.
Definitely his territory all along here.
This is definitely not going to lead me to any females with cubs or anything like that
‘cause they’ve got nothing to do with the raising of cubs.
The males don’t raise the cubs.
He’s going into the bush.
I want to go with him.
I know it’s not so clever to, to follow a leopard, but I don’t want to lose him
yet.
I might still be able to see what direction he’s taking.”
I just hope that this territory marking isn’t for my benefit.
Because whether he likes it or not, I’m going in closer.
Austin: “I don’t like this too much.
But I’m not going to lose this chance.
I’ve been right on this leopard and I know he’s gone straight ahead here.
If he gets into this bush, I’m gonna lose it and I might never get a chance again.
Everybody knows you don’t go into thick bush with a leopard.
But this leopard’s not wounded, it’s not frightened and it doesn’t even react to
me.
He’s quite atone.
I’m taking a bit of a chance.
I’m going to try to get close.
I’m on the track again.
In fact, I can actually smell it.
This leopard has been scenting and he follows this gaming marking territory.
And I can actually smell that pungent smell.
I’m sure he’s not too far ahead.”
Austin: “Oh, here’s a print.
Quite a clear print.
I’m grateful for that.
He’s left the bush and he’s back onto the sandy track over here.
I might still be able to follow him a little further.
Jesus, did you see that?
The leopard’s lying right here, totally camouflaged.
I almost walked on top of it.
Animal was right here, in my full vision and I couldn’t see it.
Makes your heart go like this.
It just shows you you’ve gotta be so careful wherever you’re going.
You might looking straight at the animal and you walk right into it.
If it turns on me.
Wow, that was luck.”
I don’t know who got more of a shock – him or me – and I still didn’t get a decent
shot.
I’m beginning to think I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew.
My only option is to keep doing what I have been doing – check past haunts then search
for tracks on the roads and dry riverbeds.
But there’s one dry riverbed I’ve been putting off exploring.
This one is only accessible on foot.
I decide it’s time to give it a try.
Elephants may look like lumbering giants, but they can easily outrun me.
They’re a big reminder that I need to be constantly on my guard.
Austin: “These ravines are great places for leopards.
I might even find tracks in the sand, and that’s typical area for dens.”
The steep banks and close vegetation have me completely hemmed in.
Leopards are ambush hunters, and I know they’re close by.
Austin: “That’s leopard feces.
No question about it.
And if you look here, you can actually see the fur from the coats of whatever animal
this might have been at one time.
No question about it.
Leopard feces.
And it’s fresh.”
The ravine opens out into a beautiful rocky riverbed.
Austin: “That’s fantastic.
Just look at that.
I’ve got perfect prints.
Absolutely perfect and sharp, in the wet sand so they’re not dried up.
This is something I could only dream of getting.
If I could just find this female – it must be a female taking her cubs along – I might
just be led to a den.”
But suddenly, the tracks die out.
The bare rocks make further tracking impossible.
But it’s not a complete dead end.
Austin: “Ah, I found something.
I’ve lost my leopard tracks, but I’ve found something else.
Ah, it’s a snake.
It’s a boomslang, a tree snake.
There, I’ve got him.
There we go, I’ve got him.
It’s a green boomslang, tree snake.
Wooh, look at that.
Is he stunning?
These are one of the most interesting snakes and a beautiful snake as well.
Let’s just see if I can get out of this.
There we go.
I’ve just gotta be careful.
He’s not an aggressive snake.
They don’t normally go out of their way to bite you.
But if you fool with him like this, he might just have a problem.
Okay, what I want to do, just so I can show him to you more carefully, is just get him
behind the head a little bit.
Come on, are you going to let me touch your head?
I’ll put him on the rock and see if I can pin him down.
I don’t want to put my hand there without doing that.
Come on.
Put you down, there we go.
There we are.
That’s always the most dangerous part, taking the snake behind the head.
From that position, I can easily show you what those eyes look like.
They’re enormous eyes.
Boomslangs see pretty well and they need to because they have to catch things in trees,
like lizards and birds.
Okay, he’s opening his mouth and rattling.
Oh, look at that.”
Austin: “You can just see quite clearly there how
those fangs come forward.
Look at him pushing them forward.
You need only be scraped by one of those fangs, just scratched, and that’s enough venom
to kill an adult human being, no problem at all.
Look at the colouring on this snake.
It’s stunningly beautiful.
I mean, they’ve got green, but they’re edged in black.
And these big scoots at the bottom make it easy to get over trees and hold onto branches
and stuff like that.
See how easy he moves the tail?
Look at that.
He can grip onto anything.
Look, he makes a knot.
I could let go of the whole snake like that and he would just hang on that knot.
Isn’t that fantastic?
He’s got a perfect knot over there.
This guy seems to be crossing the riverbed, heading for the big trees over there, and
that’s a safer place for him; he’s pretty exposed here.
So I think I’ll take him over, drop him in the trees, let him be off, and I’ll carry
on searching for leopards.
I’ll just take him gently like this.
He’s quite relaxed.
Get all my stuff together and then put him in a tree.
Here we go.”
I head back into the bush to see if I can pick up the leopards trail again.
But here in the scrub, it’s not just the ground you need to watch.
A leopard will often hide in the treetops, ready to pounce.
Austin: “Come, come quick!
Look up there.
See in the hole?
Python going into the hollow tree.
I’m gonna see if I can get it.
It’s a young one.
I’ll see if I can get up there.”
It’s an African rock python.
They can grow up to six metres long.
But this one looks like a youngster.
Austin: “Maybe I’m lucky and I can give it a go.”
Snakes sense vibrations and, unfortunately, I’m making enough of those to scare him
off.
Austin: “The guy’s right in here somewhere.
Aw.
There’s the hole.
Oh man.
This hold goes all the way down to the bottom of the tree.
If he’s still in here, I’ll never get to him.”
Austin: “Oh man, look at this.
I’ve got a kill up here.
There’s a little kill, half-eaten kill.
I was so concentrated on the snake, I didn’t see it.
It’s a little, looks like a gray duiker.
It’s been hooked in the tree and most of it’s eaten, but there’s still a piece
here.
Leopard’s been up here.
They’ve been pulling on the fur.
This is all fur that I’ve got over here.
And there’s a lot of ants here.
But these guys are gonna come back.
I’ve got a lot of duiker fur.
I better get out of here really quickly.
This guy could come back any minute and this is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.
If I can bring my car here, I can stake him out.
But I must get away before he gets here.”
I might just be able to get my car to the side of the ravine.
But it’s going to be tricky, and I need to be quick.
So this is the last thing I need.
Austin: “Buffalo dung.
Very fresh as well.
That’s what worries me when I’m on foot in the bush like this, thick bush like this.
Anything could be lurking out there.”
Sure enough, something is.
Austin: “There’s buffalo, a big herd of buffalo.
All over the place.
They moved in while I’ve been away and they’ve surrounded my vehicle.
I need to get to the vehicle.
Buffalo are very dangerous and there’s a lot of calves here as well, which makes it
even more dangerous.
You startle a buffalo, you come in close contact with them, they don’t turn away; they come
straight for you.
They let you have it and they don’t give up until you’re dead.
I’ve gotta find away around to my vehicle.”
All it needs is one buffalo to charge and the whole herd could turn on me.
Austin: “They’re everywhere.”
Thankfully, these guys seem as nervous as I am, and appear to take refuge behind my
vehicle.
Time to get out of here as quick as I can.
The only way out is to use my trusty vehicle to push my way through the ring of horn and
muscle.
Now I can get back to the Leopard kill.
But it’s tricky to pinpoint that one tree.
In fact, for a moment, I even lose track of where the ravine is.
Coupled with the difficult terrain, a trip that took me just fifteen minutes on foot
takes over an hour to retrace in my vehicle.
When I finally find the stashed kill again, nothing has changed.
The duiker is exactly as it was.
I’ve beaten the leopard to it.
Austin: “This is probably a bit of overkill, but
I don’t want to take any chances.
I mean, I’ve got a fresh leopard kill up there and that’s a rare opportunity.
I’m going to be here, waiting and watching.
It’s a fairly fresh kill, so I don’t know how long the leopard’s going to be.
It could be within the next twelve hours or twenty-four hours.
But I’m just gonna have to be ready for it.”
After all those days of searching, it seems ironic that I end up sitting in my vehicle,
waiting for Africa’s most elusive predator to come to me.
Staking out the tree kill pays off.
Austin: “I’ve just spotted the leopard coming
this way.
Look at it.
And it’s looking up at the kill.
It’s coming stealthily straight for, right towards me.
These animals are so perfectly camouflaged.
If I hadn’t seen it move, I wouldn’t know it was there.
It looks like quite a young leopard.
Oh man, there’s a second leopard here.
I’ve got two leopards.
This is incredible.
I was hoping for one leopard; I’ve got two.”
This could be the break I’ve been hoping for.
The smaller leopard looks to be around eighteen months old.
Just about ready to look after itself.
Not exactly the young cub I was looking for, but certainly close enough.
I’m pretty sure this is a mother and her cub.
Austin: “It’s going up there.
It’s going right up there.”
The mother stays back as sentry.
Austin: “This is definitely an older leopard.
I mean you can see straight away.
Look at the ears, especially the ears are quite tattered.
It’s quite an old female.”
I was hoping I’d get shots of them feeding.
But it looks like they’re only interested in one thing.
Austin: “They both seem to be quite well-fed right
now, so they’re just relaxing.
This is just totally amazing.
The young one up in the tree, completely at ease, its legs hanging over the branch.
The mother, down here, doing exactly the same, hanging over the branch, both fast asleep
almost.
I cannot believe that this is one of the most ferocious and dangerous – potentially dangerous
– animals in the world.
Look at this face.
It’s like a little puddy-cat.
It’s hard to believe that this, looking like a domestic cat relaxing here right now,
could spring up at a moment’s notice, especially with a kill and a young one around.”
Austin: “It looks like this guy started feeding
again.
He keeps tasting on the kill.
You can actually hear him crunching away.
It’s just slightly hidden behind the tree there.
It’s not, not possible to get a clear shot of it.”
I think I can do just a little bit better.
Austin: “If I can just get that bit closer and get
under the tree.”
I’ve got to hope the engine doesn’t spook them.
Austin: “That’s as close as I can go.
I’m actually right beneath the leopard.
And what I’m gonna do is try and get up.
This is crazy, but I want to get that close that I’m on the bonnet.
I hope it’s not the last photo I ever take.
Okay.
Oh man.
I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Austin: “Gave a little smile straight to my face,
acknowledging me.
When you stick this powerful lens right on his face and his eyes go right through the
lens into your eyes, it’s quite something I think.
There’s nothing quite as ferocious as the eyes of a cat about to jump.
Those snarls were just a warning.
‘This is my carcass; keep away.’
This is the most incredible experience, to be this close.
I’m almost within touching range of a feeding leopard.
I cannot believe it.
One more shot then I’m down.”
I don’t want to push my luck any more than I have already.
Austin: “That’s it.
I’ve got my shots.
Isn’t that absolutely beautiful.
That has been an incredible experience.”
At last, a mother and cub, and a close encounter I could only have dreamed of.
Even as I drive away, the enormity of what has just happened is still sinking in.
Before this trip, I had a mere handful of leopard shots.
Now I’ve got enough to last me a lifetime.
And I have the photograph I was commissioned to take.
But this adventure was so much more than just fulfilling an assignment; it turned into something
really special.
Austin: “At the beginning of this mission, I was
really frustrated; I just couldn’t get close to leopards, especially not a female with
cubs.
But I did see a lot of other fascinating animals in between.
And then, finally, when I did get a leopard, a female with a sub-adult cub, up a tree,
feeding on a kill and me, just three metres away, that was fantastic.
And that’s something you’re never gonna forget.”
