Leopards are in high demand for safari-goers but are sometimes difficult to find.
Leopards are a common species, thought to number in the hundreds of thousands (rough estimate of 350,000 in sub-Saharan Africa) and yet they are usually one of the most difficult to find safari sightings. While lions and cheetah are often conspicuous the leopard is stealth, the master of cover.
Good safari planning can help greatly increase your odds to finding these stunning cats. Consider the following factors:
• Include areas of habituation. In established safari areas animals become accustomed to game drive vehicles and eventually remain relaxed around them. In some areas leopards remain shy and flee quickly, in other areas they will lay around and even hunt in close proximity to a vehicle.
• Night drives. Leopards are generally nocturnal and thus having night drive opportunities increases the chance to find them as well as to observe more activity as opposed to just lounging in a tree.
• Off road driving. Leopards usually spend their daytime up in mature trees or on the ground in thick cover. If your drives are limited to roads you may not be able to investigate promising areas or you will often spot them in trees from far away but not be able to approach for a better view.
• Tracking. Due to their stealth nature and habit to conceal in cover, active tracking is the best way to find that a leopard is in the area and worth investing time to try and locate. This must be used in tandem with off road driving so when a track is spotted that the trail of spoor (tracks) can be followed wherever it goes by your tracker and guide. Sometimes monkeys or baboons may make warning calls that alert to the presence of a leopard as well. Having a guide/tracker team that can actively pursue clues is important.
• Dry season advantage. Leopards may be spotted anytime of year but when the leaves are off the trees and the grass had died back it can be much easier to spot a leopard that might have been concealed at a different time of year.
Deception Valley Lodge has bushmen trackers of phenomenal skill. Here the team of !Xhase and Adriaan following the trail of a leopard. The result, !Xhase tracked until we found a beautiful young leopard stalking a warthog.
Some habituated leopards are comfortable hunting in the presence of the vehicle.
5 Great Places to Find Leopards
1. Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa. It is unusual that one place can ever be considered beyond doubt the best safari location for any factor, but when it comes to leopards the Sabi Sand is without a doubt the most reliable location for quality viewing. Here the densities of individual leopards are incredible and they have been heavily habituated for many generations over the last thirty years. Virtually any lodge in the Sabi Sand (see my Planning Guide to the Sabi Sand) can have very good leopard viewing. The absolute ideal area is Londolozi, which had the first camps in the area that habituated leopards. Londolozi is best because there is an incredible concentration of leopards as well as highly skilled trackers. In 2006 Londolozi guides recorded a staggering 128 individual leopards. Currently they see 18 different habituated individuals on a regular basis. The Londolozi staff includes 4 trackers who have earned the credential of Master Tracker, considering there are only 16 Master Trackers in all of South Africa that is exceptional. From a practical tourism perspective another strength of Londolozi is they have five different camps to choose from offering a wide range of styles and pricing at Varty Camp, Pioneer Camp, Founders Camp, Tree Camp, and Granite Suites.
2. South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. The key here is night drives. The vast riverine habitat is ideal leading to a high density of leopards. They may be found in the day but once its dark and the cats get active the spotlights find them frequently making this park one of the best areas for sighting leopards.
3. Talek River Area, Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya. Relaxed leopards are a frequent sighting inside of the Mara along the Talek River in proximity to Mara Intrepids, Mara Explorer, and Rekero Tented Camp as well as a few others. That would be the knock on this area, it can be heavily trafficked with many vehicles swarming to a good leopard sighting but there is no denying the oft found heavily habituated leopards, some of whom are regulars on BBC’s Big Cat Diary.
The quintessential sighting for many safari goers is the leopard lounging in the tree.
4. Northern Botswana. Within the Okavango Delta and Kwando-Linyanti Region there is lots of good leopard habitat and locally where leopards become habituated sightings can be excellent. Moremi Game Reserve would probably be the local hotspot with the private Mombo Camp having gained particular fame for excellent leopard sightings, including the stars of ‘Eye of the Leopard’ filmed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Within private concessions off road driving, night driving and the exclusivity of no vehicle crowding makes Botswana the ideal place for viewing once a leopard is located.
5. Seronera, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Seronera merits mention because leopards are spotted almost daily here but it is a crowded part of the park and vehicles are restricted to the road. I sat with over 20 vehicles double parked along the road based on just the rumor of a leopard in the grass that apparently was never really there. Even in the less crowded Ndutu area a leopard in a tree drew 12 vehicles. Thus, while this area is good for having sightings they tend to be of a lower quality than the other areas mentioned.
Special Mention – Deception Valley Lodge, Kalahari Desert, Botswana
This would be a surprising location for leopards to some but leopards are extremely versatile and can make a good living in areas of the Kalahari that have sufficient cover. On Deception Valley Lodge’s private concession area there is thought to be eight leopards. This area lacks big trees so leopards are mostly confined to the ground but there is thick scrub cover that leopards conceal into. The excitement here is the tracking element as bushmen trackers, the ultimate masters of this ancient art find and follow spoor often leading to very relaxed leopards on ground level. The dry season due to lack of leaves of the shrubs is much better for observing leopards at this location.