We found the old male leopard out on the edge of a flood plain watching a herd of impala and one male
waterbuck.
He was clearly interested in them, hiding in the grass and moving closer,
but he wasn't very very well positioned at all.
Although the impala had no idea that he was near them, he wasn't in any position to try and hunt.
It wasn't long before he realized that and gave up this chase and cut back through the island onto Dead Tree Island.
Near the point of Dead Tree Island, he started with rather peculiar behaviour of calling and scent marking quite frequently.
It wasn't long before we realized what his calling was all about.
A female leopard came out of the sedge grass and went straight up the same tree that he was in.
She began to harass him and this is where these two began the first mating that we saw.
It's an incredibly agressive, very loud display and totally initiated by the female.
It's typical for leopards to mate probably every half hour in the first several days of their mating.
You could just see the female keeps coming back and harrassing the male and just presenting herself to him.
Amazing how nimble they have to be.
The next day we found them further across from Dead Tree onto Sedudu Island.
The couple were out in the open and sitting in a very big mopane tree.
Once again, the female is coming up to him and displaying in front of him.
Our presence there didn't really impact on them and it was just an incredibly piece of behaviour to witness.
The branches just didn't quite present a perfect place for them to copulate at all.
It wasn't long before they both came down the tree.
Most cats have serrations on their penises and apparently it's a painful ordeal for the female.
She retreated from the open area to the edge of the grass and the sedge nearer the channel.
Every bit of time we got to witness their mating for the last time on the
edge of the thick miscanthus grass.
This mating was a particularly agressive mating.
Again, very much driven by the female.
She remained in the sedge grass and the male having done
his bit he thought for the day moved up onto the termite mound
and promptly went to sleep.