Bwana

Yesterday, I tagged along with Louis, trying to track down Bwana. Bwana is a young two year old leopard, born of MJ and Mafana (one of the males in the park). He was fitted with a radio collar, but because he is a growing cat, he needs it to be changed soon or it will become too tight.

The plan was for Louis and I to see if we could find him, in a good open position, at which point we would radio Wayne to drive over and dart him, ready to change the collar on the spot.

We managed to find him, lounging atop a hide at one of the dams. He then jumped down into the thick bush which made up the surroundings- apparently, he has a reputation for being a difficult cat to find! We followed him for a short while, never seeing him, only following the beep from the radio collar (which we picked up with Louis' telemetry antenna). Eventually we came across him, lying in a river bed and seeming very relaxed; it was the perfect opportunity. We told Wayne as much, and he raced over whilst we kept an eye on Bwana.

When we heard Wayne's car, we backed out of our position so that he could drive in instead, lined up for a clean shot. Parked on a track near by, I waited whilst Louis and Wayne advanced in Wayne's Landcruiser. As the wait became longer, I thought it unlikely that they had managed to dart Bwana- even if he started walking and they did manage to follow him, the density of the bush would have made it extremely difficult to shoot a moving target.

Sure enough, Wayne and Louis arrived back unsuccessful, informing me that Bwana had begun to move off on sighting the Landcruiser.

Hopefully they will catch him soon!