March 28, 2015
African Wild Cat and Leopards in Kruger National Park, South Africa

I've finished three nights in the central part of Kruger National Park, South Africa, and I'll spend one more night here before moving a bit further north and away from internet for a few days.

Wildlife photography is largely about luck and taking advantage of situations as they develop. Of course, the more experienced you become, the luckier you become. :) Yesterday morning, I had an unbelievable string of luck with cats, and because I'm a cat person, this blog post will be all about those cats.

The morning started off with six young male lions resting on the paved road and at least two females or additional young male lions about 30[nbsp]yds (30[nbsp]m) out form the road. Because it was still before sunrise, and lions on the road or significantly below the road level aren't that exciting to photograph, I would have kept going. However, I stopped and watched because there was a large herd of cape buffalo nearby with lots of calves and things could get interesting. When two of the buffalo came towards the lions and to the river to drink and nothing happened, I moved on. Shortly after I turned onto a dirt road, I came upon an African wild cat (Felis silvestris lybica) on the road. African wild cats are rare to see, but not quite as rare as caracals. They're the same species at the domestic cat, and their ancestors were the ones that domesticated humans and are now known as Felis silvestris catus. It moved off into the low grass to the left and because I didn't want to miss the opportunity, I rested the hood of my 600 on the passenger window of the right-drive car to photograph it (above). Because it seemed quite content to sit there and watch me, I pulled ahead and turned around so that I could photograph it from the driver's window on a beanbag for more stability. As I was doing so, the cat took the opportunity to move further from the road and I eventually lost sight of it in the taller grass and bushes. If I had stayed with the lions for a different amount of time, I almost certainly would have missed the African wild cat. Less than 3/4 of a mile (1.2[nbsp]km) down the road, I came upon a leopard (Panthera pardus) about five ft (1.5[nbsp]m) from the road and heading away. He, determined from later photographs, laid down about 10[nbsp]yds (9[nbsp]m) out and groomed — always gotta look good if you're a cat. (Anyone a fan of Red Dwarf?) I was able to get some nice shots of him through the tall grass. He got up and continued heading away from the road and then turned to start paralleling the road about 30-35[nbsp]yds (27-32[nbsp]m) out. He would stop occasionally to groom some more — just in case he needed to impress the ladies. At one of the grooming stops, he was completely obscured by the tall grass when another vehicle pulled up next to me. I told the guy that there was a leopard straight out but that it wasn't visible at the moment, and he said, "It's moving!" Sure enough, the leopard had started paralleling the road again. The other guy and his family left after just a few minutes and I couldn't believe it — they probably weren't cat people. Either that or they were on a mission to see the Big Five: cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and black rhino, but usually any kind of rhino will do, especially if you're on a tight schedule. By spending three minutes with one of the five, they could check it off the list and then go search for the others. The leopard started to make his way closer and closer to the road, and that's when the photography got really interesting (above). He eventually crossed the road and continued his course through the sea of tall grass. I watched him go and realized that I probably would have missed him if I hadn't spent the right amount of time with the lions and then with the African wild cat.

But wait, there's more. About an hour after that leopard encounter, I decided to take a short loop road to get right up to the riverbank. It was a crescent-shaped excursion like a pull-through camp site but was about 100[nbsp]yds (90[nbsp]m) long with a maximum offset from the main road of about 25[nbsp]yds (23[nbsp]m). I had skipped all of the other similar loop roads on the drive because the view is from high up above the mostly dry riverbed, so if there is something down there, it wouldn't be a good shot anyways. As I turned onto the loop road, I saw a leopard (Panthera pardus) cub on the road about 30[nbsp]yds (27[nbsp]m) ahead of me! It was about the size of a domestic cat, so it was probably about two or three months old. Can you say "cute"?! As I approached, it moved into the bushes to the left — darn. When I got to where it went off the road, I saw its mother and a second cub about 10[nbsp]ft (3[nbsp]m) away. They were too close to photograph through the passenger window so I pulled ahead and made a seven-point turn to turn around on the narrow road lined with trees and bushes. By the time I got back to where I had seen the leopards, they were moving away from the road. I went back to the main road to get ahead of them and had the brilliant idea (not!) to get a family shot as they came out into the open. So I got my 100-400 ready and they didn't come out for a nice family portrait. One cub was in the lead and came out into a great location but when the mother started to come out and saw me they all stopped. It wasn't going to be an interesting shot with the 100-400 so I quickly got out the 600. While framing up the lead cub, it turned and they all started heading back into the bush — arg, still no shots! I started to back up to head them off on the loop road but they decided to head towards the junction of the main road and loop road so I met them at an opening along the way. The lead cub was mostly obscured by waving tall grass, and the autofocus did a great job focusing on the grass. The leopards turned around and disappeared into the bush and I still hadn't gotten a shot. As I was deciding whether to back down the loop road to shoot the leopards coming to the road, I saw them cross the loop road which solved that problem. I drove down the loop road and was able to get some head shots of the mother but didn't see the cubs and thought the show was over. The mother started heading away and then one of the cubs poked its head through the grass and looked right at me. I didn't even try to autofocus this time and instead immediately started to manually focus, a piece of cake when using back button focus, and bingo — I finally got a shot of one of the cubs (above)! And it was all because I spent the right amount of time with the lions, the African wild cat, the male leopard, and then made the last-minute decision to take the loop road.