Son of the king’s return

This male leopard, known as the White Dam young male, has been relatively scarce on the reserve of Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve for quite some time. This is possibly because once a male leopard of such age starts to threaten the current dominant male, he will be pushed out to define a territory of his own.

I assumed that White Dam’s time was up at Sabi Sabi after not seeing him for a while, I assumed that he had been forced out and moved on. About 12 weeks after his disappearance, I heard a young male had been sighted. I immediately thought “let me go see if he has returned” and there he was. Situated in a large Jackalberry tree, the son of the Maxabeni male had returned. He was feeding on an impala ewe and looked better than ever. Could the return of the Maxabeni male’s son be a threat to his father’s territory, only time will tell...

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D mk ii
• Lens and Focal length – Canon-EF100-400mm f-4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 180mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 1600
• Aperture – f 5,0
• Shutter – 1/640

Editing used on this image

Editing for such an image can seem quite difficult, especially with such a light background as the highlighted sky. What I did was increase the exposure in my shot so the subject i.e. the leopard, could stand out against the light sky. I also decreased the highlights and upped the clarity due to the high exposure. Next step was positioning the subject. By positioning the leopard on the right, it minimises the highlighted sky best and also allowed for a story to be read.