June 29th 2013, Central Serengeti, Tanzania

After the long trip to the Western Corridor I paused for one night in Seronera, and decided to explore the Kopjes in the Central Serengeti. Once again I was blown away by the beauty and the majesty of the kopjes, and by the amount of wildlife that they host. As I drove along one kopje, I found a Leopard sleeping in a tree growing through the rocks. It was a female, and I parked and waited hoping that she would pose nicely on a rock in the late afternoon light. Around her there were many Rock Hyraxes. At about 5.30pm she descended the tree and disappeared inside the rocks. The Hyraxes started giving alarm calls, as the sun descended quickly within the horizon. When she stood up on the branch I had noticed that her belly was swollen, a sign that she might have small cubs. As I waited and waited for her to come out, I had some lovely time with the Hyraxes, a big clan with many babies. It was amazing to watch them so relaxed, playing, although they knew that one of their worst enemies, the Leopard, was just a few meters away from them. Shows how efficient their surveillance system must be! The Leopard never emerged from the rocks and I thought that she could be nursing her cubs away from view.