Sometimes the rangers at Ivory Tree Game Lodge decides to head into the Pilanesberg National Park to go have some fun, most of the time though it is work related. And if for some reason they have to go to Sun City it is much preferred to rather do a personal little safari through the park instead of driving around the park.
Yesterday was one such day. The rangers had to go to Sun City for shooting practice and decided to drive through the Pilanesberg National Park. Not long into the park we saw some wildebeest, impala, giraffe, and all the usual plains game. What we did not know was this was about to turn into a dream safari.
About 5km from Ivory Tree Game Lodge we saw a vehicle parked off to the side of the road. Some of the guys joked and said it would be elephant, some said rhino, and I took a wild guess and said leopard. When we parked behind the vehicle we couldn’t really see anything, but when we moved a bit back, lo and behold, there she was, a beautiful leopard walking through the open plains.
Her body posture also suggested that she might be hunting, which at this stage we couldn’t understand as we couldn’t really see any animals around. Then one of the guys spotted a warthog under a tree. The leopard moved under a tree right next to the one the warthog was using.
We waited for quite a while after she disappeared into the shade, and then all of a sudden warthog came running out everywhere! It was absolute chaos for the warthog, they had managed to completely surround the leopard, giving her a big range to pick from. In retrospect this might actually be what saved them, as the leopard might have had difficulty deciding which one to chase.
In the end all the warthog managed to escape and the leopard decided to head for higher ground, hopefully to plan her next attempt. What caught us all off guard though was the time this all took place, about half past 10 in the morning. That is always something to remember, the animals don’t read the books we write about them.
Ranger Neill
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