“Never say Never”- a saying I learnt early on in my career as a Field Guide to never say. It doesn't matter what the text books says, the exception is always the norm, and that is what is so addictive about doing a safari, even as a Guide there are sometimes sightings that blow your mind and this was one of them...

One of our Selati Camp Rangers, Keegan Russell, headed out on a bush walk after the morning safari with his guests and soon after driving out of the lodge, heard a distinctive sound - the commotion of leopards mating! After briefly listening, the noise continued and he found the pair mating on the banks of the Msuthlu River. Keegan - keen to share this amazing sighting, radioed me to let me know what he had found. I certainly did not hesitate, rushing to my guests on the deck to offer them the chance to go and see this spectacle as a midday safari. It was pretty obvious what their answer would be.

We left the lodge and Keegan guided us into the location of the sighting. There they were - the young Msuthlu female and the Maxabeni male, the dominant male of the area. It was very clear that this was quite early in their mating marathon due to the frequency of their copulating.

It was incredible - to anyone who has ever witnessed big cats mating, it’s the noise which is incredible, the snarling and the hissing is something that is quite simply captivating. One of my guests even gasped for air as their heart skipped a beat at the intense noise.

The day was getting hotter and they started to make their way down to the riverbed of the same name as the female. We had to take an alternative route to access the riverbed to relocate on the honeymoon couple, when we bumped into another leopard - the young male known to us as the White Dam male and the offspring of the Maxabeni male.

It’s always surprised me that the dominant male had never chased his son off of his territory and seemingly tolerating him staying there, despite the young male scent marking and vocalising within his father’s territory. This was now a little too intrusive as males would chase away other males and competitors.

We then made our way to the riverbed and watched Maxabeni and the Msuthlu female mate at regular intervals. It’s tough to see a leopard in most reserves but due to the high density of leopards within the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, makes it one of the best reserves to view these elusive cats. It is never a guarantee but you do have a much better chance to see them, but to see mating leopards, something limited to the privileged few, gave our guests a great opportunity to capture such intimate photographs.

With the day getting hotter as it went on, we decided to head back to the lodge for some lunch with everybody in complete euphoria. As we left the sighting, we noticed the young White Dam male watching from the river bank above, less than 20 meters away, who was hiding in the thick long grass. We had vowed to return later for afternoon safari with our new guests arriving and to share the sighting with the rest of the Safari team. We could however have never scripted how that would play out...

After finishing off some high tea and taking the opportunities to meet our new guests, Keegan and I left the lodge to try and find the pair as we knew the vicinity where they would be. Mating leopards don't usually move great distances in an attempt to conserve energy as they could stay together, copulating for up to 4 consecutive days. With this being said they had moved slightly and did not take us too long to relocate. When we found them, they were out in the open, but when I say they, I mean all three leopards clearly visible to each other! We watched as the female mated with Maxabeni under the watchful eye of the jealous son. It was at that point where everything changed.

The Msuthlu female walked away from Maxabeni to the young leopard and presented herself to him by flicking her tail in his face, wafting her scent and showing her readiness to mate. Despite the dominant male leopard watching on, the young male’s desire to mate was overpowering as the pair copulated. This did not just happen once, but on several occasions in, quick succession. This was incredible - never had I seen this before. I’ve witnessed it taking place between two females and a male, but never with a submissive male in the company of the dominant - we were certainly witnessing something extremely special.

As can be seen in the video clip below, kindly shared with us by two of our guests in the sighting, you can start to see the young male contending the female’s advances and having a little spat. It was at that point, the female made her way back towards Maxabeni and then mating with him once more. The most poignant part of this whole clip is at the end when Maxabeni gazes at his son after copulating - it seems like a look of forewarning but certainly a warning that was never followed through even after we left the sighting.

It was at that time we left, in total amazement and relative silence as we tried to work out what we had just seen. A glimpse of something so special made our sundowners unforgettable as we appreciated a moment in the lives of these cats and the motto of “Never say Never” in the forefront of our minds, accompanied by the rasping calls of mating leopards ringing in our ears.