This young and curious wild leopard decided to make a rare appearance during this safari on February 21 in Mopani, South Africa.

The leopard is an elusive cat and one of the hardest animals to find during a safari in the wild. When you do get lucky and find a leopard, it is a huge privilege and a big moment every time. How the leopard reacts when found and how long it stays around before disappearing again can vary in so many ways and it all depends on the animal and on the day.
While spending time in the Kruger National Park on a self-drive holiday, my wife and I decided to take a dirt road that led to a remote part of the park. Hardly any vehicles have been on this road and the area was also not the prettiest. While making our way slowly along the dusty and rocky road, we suddenly noticed a quick movement between the rocks on the side of the road. We stopped and stared into the barren landscape for a while and couldn’t see anything. As I was about to start the vehicle, we noticed a very well camouflaged young female leopard standing dead still, not too far ahead of us. She has been there the whole time, blending in with her environment. What followed amazed us. The young leopard looked very shy but at the same time she didn’t run off like many other wild leopards would do when seeing a vehicle. This young female leopard on the other hand seemed nervously intrigued by our vehicle. To our surprise the young leopard went into stalking mode, slowly moving closer to the vehicle. In true leopard style, the female will very carefully put one front paw on the ground before placing the hind paw in the exactly same spot, in order to avoid any noise. This is what leopards do when they stalk their prey before attacking but to see this happening with our vehicle was just fascinating. The young leopard slowly made her way right up to the front of the vehicle before sitting down and peaking at us over the hood. Slowly the female leopard came around to the passenger door of the vehicle, giving my wife the opportunity to film the close encounter. It was as if this young wild leopard has never seen a vehicle before and didn’t really know what to make of it. The leopard then decided to get back into stalking mode, carefully sneaking past the passenger door before stopping again behind a nearby bush. From there the young leopard occasionally took a sneaky peak at us from around the bush. We spend a total of forty-five amazing minutes with this wild young leopard before she slowly decided to move on. One of my most amazing leopard sightings ever