Postcard from Passagetoafrica.com: Richard Coke's Family Value of the Animal Kind

LEOPARD FAMILY VALUES 

I've just returned from a wonderful wildlife concession in northern Botswana where I saw something extraordinary.

At the end of an evening game drive, we came across a young female leopard who had killed an impala.  She had fed on some of it and was trying to lift the carcass into an acacia tree to eat later, but she was too small to manage it and so she went up in the tree to have a rest.

When we came back the following day, she was still up there.  However she had been joined by a big male Leopard during the night who was hogging the carcass that she finally hoisted into the tree.  He was very hostile.  Every time the young female tried to come down the tree, the male leopard would chase her back up.

She was still trapped up there when we came by a day later — leopards will feed on an impala carcass for three or four days.  By then we could see she was very uncomfortable, thirsty, and wanted to get down.  We watched as she tried to escape.  The male rushed at her and they had a big fight.  She gave him a few clouts around the head but came off worse and fell a few meters, but was lucky to land on a lower branch.  That afternoon, he had enough of the kill and moved off.

What's astonishing about this story is that the male was her father.  The guys who work in that area knew the family history of both the animals.  The young female was edging into adulthood.  She could not have been more than two years old.  But the male leopard's priority was the food source, not paternal pride.

A PASSION FOR AFRICA:  About Richard Coke