The waiting game

Saturday, 29 March 2014 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Seeing a leopard in the wild is a rare occurrence, and getting a really good quality sighting is even rarer. Getting the best sighting involves some work from your part as well. Patience being the main virtue, one needs to be adept in the waiting game. The chances of getting lucky are 50/50, but when you do get sightings, it is rewarding indeed. Through my travels in the wilds of Sri Lanka, I realised that staying put and waiting for the perfect sighting is much more rewarding that merely running from one place to another hoping to find a sighting. The ideal places to lie in wait are at a water hole where, especially during the dry season it is most probable that a leopard will come to quench its thirst.

Another thing I like about lying in wait at a waterhole is the many other sighting you get of all the denizens of the jungle. Some of the sightings range from large herds of spotted deer that warily approach the water and bolt at the slightest noise to the horde of wild boar, buffalo and countless birds. Waiting to welcome them is the mugger or marsh crocodile ready to drag an unlucky soul into the muddy depths. After what seems like a lifetime, suddenly you catch a glimpse of the apex predator of the forest approaching. Sometimes silently and without warning, but at other times the arrival is pre-announced by the shrill alarm calls of the spotted deer and the coughing like sound of the grey langurs.

My observation is that these cats are very picky with the spot they choose to drink from and may walk about the water hole at times looking for the best location. Sometimes snarling at the water if a mugger is found, finally settling down at a spot, the leopard will drink its fill. Finally quenched of its thirst, if one is really lucky, the cat will relax on the sand on the edge of the water. Rolling and playfully frolicking about or lazily sitting in one place and yawning occasionally, this is a photographer’s feast, with the loud machine-gun-like clicking heard from many a patient soul like myself.

At times climbing a tree close by the leopard will do what cats do best, which is fall asleep in the quiet afternoon. Sometimes the location being almost impossible to photograph, only the patient few will be rewarded once the cat wakes from its slumber. Often stretching itself and yawning profusely, the sightings are amazing if one is willing to wait hours for the lazy feline to wake up.

After a while, which always seems too short, the leopard will slink back into the forest from whence it came with the same stealth and mysterious aura it brings with it, and we are left almost out of breath with a memorable sighting. (Read more from Rajiv at www.wildlifediaries.blogspot.com. You can view his photography portfolio at www.flickr.com/photos/rajivw and contact him via email on [email protected].)