The Best Leopard Spotter

The Wild4 Safari Vehicle

My sole criterion for picking the photo safari outfit I used in South Africa was the vehicle. I wanted to be able to do serious wildlife photography, and it was clear that the vehicle used by Wild4Photographic Safaris was designed by a serious photographer for other serious photographers.

The Nissan diesel pick-up was customized for safari like many others in South Africa. The standard bed was converted to three tiered benches with a canvas top.

What made it special was the additional customizing owner Stu Porter had done. First, the vehicle capacity is 10 passengers -- one in the front seat by the driver, then three on each bench. But Stu puts only one passenger on each bench -- three photographers total, so that each photographer can shoot out of either side of the vehicle. The two-thirds empty bench then has loads of storage space for the photographer's gear, and serious photographers do carry a lot of gear.

That was enough to persuade me to book my trip with Stu. Well, that and seeing Stu's own photos on his Web site. He knows photography, and I inferred that he would be sensitive to photographers' needs.

I was right. And then some.

Stu Porter

Stu, who bears a striking resemblance to movie actor Matt Damon, is a deceptively shy young man with an encyclopedic knowledge of Kruger National Park, its animals, geography, geology, climate, seasons, and, of course, rules. He also has the eyes of an eagle and is the best leopard spotter in South Africa.

I came to that conclusion at the end of a day in which a particular leopard had eluded nearly everyone looking for it all day. It was in the vicinity of a pride of lions that was taking turns eating and guarding a dead hippopotamus. The lions were easy to spot; they wanted to be seen by vultures, hyenas or other scavengers that might dare to steal any of the hippo carcass. We had eaten breakfast that morning while we watched a one-eyed lioness take her turn on the hippo.

Someone driving by advised us that "someone" had seen a leopard in the vicinity, with vague directions as to where the leopard might be. We spent some time looking in that area without luck, then moved on to see what other animals we could find. A return to the lion kill and rumored leopard in mid-afternoon also yielded no leopard.

But we went back one last time as the sun began bathing the bushveldt with its golden afternoon rays. Other leopard seekers had drifted away. There was only one other vehicle in the area when Stu, who had been scanning a wide area with a few big trees and slightly dense undergrowth, said quietly, "I see him."

He gave us directions. "See the small dead tree just beyond the rocks, then there's a big tree behind that, and some bushes to the left...no, not that dead tree, the one just past the rocks, at the edge of the grass...he's in that clump of bushes, just there." I followed as well as I could with my binoculars, and sure enough, there was a small patch of pale yellow with black spots in the midst of the bushes, about 80 meters away. Very small, very well hidden, a trademark skill of leopards. How Stu found it, I have no idea, for even when I was locked on, I think I would not have seen it without Stu finding it first.

Once we all had it, we waited, watching constantly. Finally, our patience was rewarded. The leopard stood up, revealing the 95 percent of him that had been hidden in the bushes, and walked calmly to the base of the tree, maybe 5 meters away. He stopped there, and Stu said, "He's going to climb it."

The leopard lands in the tree

By this time I had put down my binoculars and picked up my camera. I got focused in just as the leopard leaped on the far side of the tree and suddenly appeared in the crotch of the first limb, about 15 feet above the ground. There he paused, fur blazing in the light of the setting sun, looked around and then moved along the limb to a narrow horizontal space, where he lay down and watched us.

I took a few more photos, and when I took my eye away from the camera, I realized that he had placed himself against a dense tangle of leafless branches, and had I not already seen him through the long telephoto lens, I doubt I would have found him with the naked eye.

But Stu Porter, I am sure, would have.