21 October 2016 / leggypeggy

Pench delivers—again

Albert, leopard, leopards, Madhya Pradesh, Overland Expeditions India, Pench, safaris, tiger reserves, wildlife

Leopard Pench

Romance was in the air today!

It all started this morning at Pench Tiger Reserve in central India. We’ve had numerous safaris through Pench over the last three years, but today was the first time we’d ventured to a distant end of the reserve.

That’s when we saw her, strolling along the road enjoying the solitude of a chilly morning. Within seconds she spotted us and bolted into the bush before we could get a pic. We raced forward in the Gypsy (small four-wheel drive) to where she’d vanished, but she was now just a blur in the scrub. We lingered a while, hoping she’d gather courage and reappear, but nope.

Male leopard, Pench

As we were about to give up and turn back, he came in to view, padding toward us, yet not seeing us.

It didn’t take long to figure out he was a man on a mission. He zigzagged back and forth across the road, sniffing the ground, the grasses and the air. Ah, yes, he was on her trail.

And for the next 70 minutes we watched poor Albert (I’ll soon explain why I’ve called him Albert) do his best to lure her out of hiding.

Leopard at tree

He sniffed and scratched, piddled and sprayed, and sawed. Male leopards make the most extraordinary bellowing when they are trying to call a female to them. It’s called sawing and that’s because it sounds exactly like someone cutting down a tree with a handsaw.

Anand and Deepti say it is most unusual for leopards to linger in plain view for as long as Albert did. They are naturally skittish and a sighting of a minute or two is considered a long viewing.

But Albert had only one thing on his mind, and it wasn’t us. So we were left to follow him for as long as he stayed within view. He roamed back and forth across the road, scratched trees and sat on rocks to saw pitifully.

Either the girl was far away by now, or just not interested. His woeful sawing reminded me of another Albert, a likeable yet semi-tragic figure who graces some of the stories on Fifty Words Daily.

I hope both Alberts end up getting the girl.

As for us—it was the most remarkable leopard sighting I will probably ever see.

P.S. I took about 200 photos in 70 minutes and it’s been hard to choose the ones to share. Plus I had to rush before the lodge turned off the internet—my first connection in a week. I may be compelled to share more later. 🙂

Leopard walking, Pench