Eye Contact
ByThe air was electric. Even without training in bush craft and tracking we instinctively knew there were dangers. Alarm calls from birds darting from bushes to trees raised the hairs on our necks. In a nearby baobab tree vervet monkeys shrieked, all staring in one direction. Already during our tour of Botswana we had experienced mock elephant charges and very real hippo charges and that surge of adrenalin was there again.
“We’d better get the truck,” said Vasco, our guide, staring in the direction the agitated monkeys were looking. “It could be a snake, or a lion, but it’s probably our leopard.” All morning we had been tracking the leopard from our camp away into the bush. Every so often Vasco stopped, crouched down, leaning the rifle on his shoulder and pointed out the huge leopard paw prints in the soft sand. Many animals followed the old elephant tracks through the bush and the sand recorded their nocturnal passage. Alongside the leopard tracks were those of red hyenas, the characteristic groove of a snake and imprints of herds of passing impala.
From the safety of the open truck we had a better and more relaxed view. The monkeys were almost bouncing up and down in alarm all their frightened eyes fixed on one point in the middle distance. Vasco’s sharp eyes saw the flash of yellow first.
“He’s after the Lechwe,” he said dropping down into the driver’s seat and moving us toward a prominent termite mound.
As we approached carefully through the dense bush Vasco whispered softly, “Keep very quiet and don’t stand up!” There on the mound was a magnificent alert Leopard, scanning a clearing where a herd of Lechwe antelope had been grazing. They had also been alerted by the agitated birds and monkeys. Every creature in that area, including us, understood that sudden death was stalking the bush.
“He sees the truck as a large inanimate object,” explained Vasco. “So if you don’t move he won’t recognise you as potential prey. If he passes close don’t make eye contact.” We didn’t move.
An attack plan had clearly been resolved in the calculating mind of the leopard. Ignoring us it slid into the bush with a determined stride, curving wide toward the herd of Lechwe. We’d already seen huge red livid gashes on the haunches of zebra inflicted by lions. So we held our breaths waiting for the leopard to strike.
Directly to our front the leopard moved quickly across a gap in the bush. But the monkeys high in the tree saw it too and shrieked a warming. Startled Lechwe heads sprang up, ears held tense and erect, eyes scanned all around, then they exploded into flight. As the distance between the leopard and the herd filled with dust the leopard decided to save its energy for a better prospect.
Not every charge is successful, but some are. We were later privileged to sit in the truck and watch a young cheetah enjoy his first kill, a baby springbok. Our presence in the evening light didn’t seem to disturb the cheetah but the prowling jackals kept their distance. They certainly seem to regard us as a threat.
Elated by the events of the day we drove slowly back to camp, the search light picking up the eyes of impala in the darkness. Lying across the track a huge male lion stood up and moved toward us. As it passed within inches its huge amber eyes swallowed Margaret’s dilated pupils. “I made eye contact,” she whispered. Happily the lion wasn’t hungry.
