Over the past few weeks, we have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the female leopard Kigelia and her two new cubs. We have slowly started to introduce ourselves and the vehicles to them and have waited patiently, and in silence, to allow them to feel comfortable with us, but more often than not, they preferred to hide and view us from a far.

One morning I was told that they had been found on return to the lodge, so I decided to make my way there in the afternoon with my guests. I knew very well that seeing the cubs was not guaranteed as they are still undecided about how they feel about us and that we might not see them at all, but undeterred we went to try.

We found Kigelia in a tree with an impala kill, which was already incredible to see, but sadly no cubs in sight. We continued to watch the female tip-toeing in the tops of the branches around her kill with a few too many hyenas looking up at her, which seemed to be a precarious position that she had put herself and her cubs in as there seemed to be no way in which she could bring them close to the carcass for them to feed. She soon descended from the tree, and we started to hear the telltale chuffing sounds from her, she was calling for her cubs to come closer...

We waited with bated breath and sat still hoping that our motionless bodies would be good enough to allow the cubs to feel safe, and then success! We started to see movement in the distance and small heads popping up, followed by tails not much longer than the grass. Slowly but surely they approached, keeping a close eye on us and the hyenas not too far away. We watched in awe as both cubs soon ascended the tree, a great triumph for us on the vehicle to know that our slow introduction to these cubs over the past weeks and our patience during the sighting had all been worth it!

One cub in particular seemed to be more lion-hearted than the other as it barely paid any attention to us while it feasted on the kill. Perhaps a little bit too lion-hearted, as it moved the kill that was already hanging by a thread to an even more precarious position than it was, and we watched as the cub tried its best to reposition the kill and hook a leg onto a branch so that it would not fall down into the mouths of the salivating hyenas below. It later fell to its descent. A big learning curve for these small cubs who will one day have to keep their own kills securely positioned in a tree.