‘A leopard in a tree’ is probably highest on visitors’ wish lists when you ask them what they most want to see! While it’s never a guarantee, Luangwa leopards are often very obliging in this respect.
Leopards climb trees to escape the heat and the flies, and to stash their kill away from other predators such as hyaenas which would happily steal it from them. We found this female leopard up in a tree early in the morning.
In this case, she had no kill, and was using the tree as a lookout post for a bit of early morning hunting.
Eventually, she came down from her tree and set off in pursuit of some Puku.
However, the light was already bright and she never got anywhere near the antelope! So, after all that posing, and then a half hour of hunting, she settled down for a rest in another tree!
