The Leopard (Panthera pardus) is a solitary cat that is mostly active at night. But, as we see with these shots of this lone female, they can sometimes be found resting the day away high in a tree. I’ve always had a fondness for leopards and this was my first sighting of one in the wild and I certainly made up for my long wait – some 300 plus shots of her were reeled off in next to no time! Sadly today, African leopards, along with most of the 9 recognised subspecies such as the Amur leopard, are listed as endangered species, partly through hunting, but mostly through habitat loss with 75 percent of their original range being lost in the last 300 years, leaving around 700,000 remaining in Africa as a whole.
More can be seen in the new Tanzania Gallery.
