James Crookes, a ranger at Londolozi Private Game Reserve, recently captured a stunning sequence of images that clearly demonstrate the incredible athletic ability, as well as effortless grace, of a wild leopard.
Considering that this female leopard, known as Vomba, is actually 14 years old, it was no mean feat! The rangers set out one day with express purpose of photographing leopards. It was not long before they found the Vomba female on the banks of the Sand River (a seasonal river that flows through the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve).
James quickly realised that she was looking to cross the river, and he had just enough time to manoeuvre the 4×4 Landrover, in order to capture the below images as she gracefully lept from the boulder to the other side.
It seems that only the Giant Kingfisher (seen in the last image), was not that impressed!
Londolozi is one of the pioneers of the safari industry in South Africa. Unashamedly family-owned and run. Londolozi is the Zulu word for protect and means “protector of all living things” – an ambitious conservation ethic that Londolozi embraces in its sensitivity to the natural world. Famous for its incredible leopard sightings, the reserve covers 14,000 hectares of wilderness in the heart of the famous Sabi Sand, which shares an unfenced border with the Kruger National Park.
