A very special leopard

Usually leopards are described as shy, elusive and mostly active at night. For those reasons they are not easy to spot. But as safari guides will tell you, that’s not always the case. Not often, but sometimes a leopard -mostly females- seems to enjoy the company of humans, or perhaps rather the none-threatening vehicles they come in. This was certainly true for the leopard that we had the good fortune to follow for 10 years. We called her Miep.

Miep lived in Moremi Game Reserve, part of the Okavango delta in Botswana. For people who know the area a bit, her core territory was almost in the middle between Khwai and Dombo Hippo Pool on the Khwai river. Miep must have been very lucky, as there is permanent water, vast plains and lots of bush and trees. And lots of wildlife. So anything a leopard can wish for.

And Miep was one of these rare leopards that are not shy or elusive. And we can certainly testify to the fact that she seemed to like company, as on occasions we spent hours with her, sometimes showing off her tree climbing skills hopping from one tree to the next, or purring like and overgrown house cat.

The pictures below document 10 years of her life, from 2009, the year we first photographed her, to 2019, the year we last saw her.