We were on an evening safari, and had just entered the gate leading to the park. A three-striped palm squirrel was continuously giving warning calls to its kind. I told the guests that this could be an indication of the presence of a predator, which could be a snake, an eagle or even a leopard! We stopped at a spot not far from where the call emanated. Our driver suddenly called out, “Sir, Leopard!”  I eagerly asked him where he had sighted the creature. His index finger directed me to the bushes right below a tree, just 30 feet away from us.

A leopard intently looking for something in the bushes!

We were all elated to see the big cat, in its prime, intently looking for some details in a heap of fallen leaves. The leopard was exhibiting an interesting behavior, which made me observe him very keenly!

This predator was preoccupied with the leaves! Once in a while, it raised its head and started sniffing in some direction, its jaw somewhat open and tongue slightly extended. This was an interesting sight to behold, with the leopard’s upper lip curling up and its face seemingly bearing the expression of a smile! The big cat was probably checking out the scent of another leopard, his nerves completely absorbing the smell, and sensing the chemistry of the other cat. The leopard was exhibiting a behaviour called the flehmen response. This response, interestingly, is adopted by animals while examining scents left by other animals of the same species or by prey.

A leopard exhibiting the flehmen response

However, much to our dismay, a small truck came along and parked right in front of us, obstructing our view of this magnificent feline. The driver of the truck got down to have a good look at this creature. It was poignant as the stealthy big cat gave us one last look before sneaking into the lantana bushes!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Predators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.