We spent a great length of time with a really relaxed Little Bush female and her cub these last two days. My guests and I must have taken over 1000 photos each while we watched their antics both last night and this morning!

Last night Little Bush was laying on the ground calling her cub to come and join her and all the while there were three young zebra stallions galloping around causing untold mischief with both the leopards and the hyenas present. The little cub eventually decided to take refuge up a very dense Russet Bush Willow Tree and stayed there for the rest of the evening while mom gave any hyenas in the vicinity what for before she settled at the base of the tree in which she had stashed her kill.

This morning, we went in search of her again and upon arriving at the scene, we were disappointed to not see her anywhere close by. All that was left of the kill was a few meagre scraps and we thought that was the end of it and so decided to move on in search of greener pastures. I had stopped for a brief interlude on the difference between a few of our trees and their defence mechanisms when I heard the distinctive rasping sawing call of a leopard and immediately knew it was Little Bush! We dropped what we were doing at the time and made for the tree we had left her at and lo and behold, as soon as we pulled up she emerged from the bush and made her way up to where the kill was hanging.

She spent the better part of half an hour feeding and tugging the meat this way and that while a very opportunistic hyena snaffled up the scraps as she dropped them. Until now we had not seen the cub and thought it was safely stashed somewhere close by. Little Bush then climbed down from the tree, gave the hyena a good rev, chased it off and then proceeded to walk off into the bush.

We followed her a short distance when we heard her again calling her deep rasping call and then a fainter softer call echoed hers. We watched and waited and there just ahead of us was the cub, calling back to its mother. When mom was close enough, the joyful little cub launched an all-out attack on mom’s tail and ears which was great fun to watch!

We stayed with them a little while longer, watching the cub scamper up and down a few nearby rocks as well as watching the two have a little bonding and grooming session. After they found a comfortable place in-between two big rocks, in some shade cast by a Marula Tree, we decided to go our separate ways and we left the two of them to relax in peace.