Close Encounter with Leopard in Camp in South Africa

The moment I came face to face with a big male Leopard on foot. How did I end up in this situation?

As a backupguide I live in an unfenced camp in a big-5 game reserve. The last few days we had heard a Leopard roaring close to camp at night and even found him on one of our game drives. A beautiful big male, not shy at all, he didn’t give a crap about our presence.

Then we started to find tracks of him, proving he had walked right through camp at night.

On one of the following mornings, we heard Lions roaring close to camp, when all of a sudden the Nyalas started Alarm Calling. I immediately grabbed my camera and went into the direction of the alarm calls. And as I arrived at one of the last tents in camp I saw him, totally unexpected: not a lion but this big male leopard walking through camp into my direction in daylight. The Leopard had not seen me coming and while moving into my direction on a different axis disappeared behind the tent out of my view. This was a very tense moment, I could hear the Leopard walking behind the tent and realized, that when he would emerge, I would stand a mere 10 meters away from him. My heart was pumping, but I had a clear advantage over the leopard. I knew he was coming while he would be surprised by me with plenty of escape routes in all directions for him, an absolute vital consideration for every dangerous animal encounter.
So I decided to stand my ground, took my camera and started recording just before the leopard emerged. And the moment he saw me, he bolted.

He stopped at a safe distance and took another look at me. In that moment the Nyalas went ballistic which freaked the leopard out and made him crash through the reeds and disappear for good.

This was one of my most thrilling animal encounters, bumping a Leopard alone on foot. What a privilege!

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