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This sequence of three pictures were taken in the late afternoon, and shows the first time the mother arrived while we were outside on the verandah. The cubs (first photo) had been playing on the rocks beyond the pool when their mother arrived. She lay down, apparently relaxed, on one of the rocks (photo 2). She then lay down on her side, raised her hind leg, and fed the cubs (photo three). She only acknowledged our presence if we made some sort of noise, like scraping a chair across the floor. Her reaction was to look back over her shoulder at us, check what we were doing, and then carry on feeding the cubs. It was clear that she did not consider us any sort of threat to her cubs. Her only other reaction to our presence was, on one occasion at night, to take an irritated swipe at a light beam which clearly annoyed her. I must add that on that occasion we were inside the house looking out with a spotlight, having heard the usual leopard cub racket on the verandah. The cubs would climb, chew, pounce and knock over virtually anything they could get hold of. Every now and then they would take a 5 or 10-minute break, then start all over again. |
