Cool for cats!

[Rainbirder]

The Boy does nothing!

 

"Does he wash up? Never wash up
Does he clean up? No, he never cleans up
Does he brush up? Never brushed up
He does nothing, the boy does nothing"

 

ALESHA DIXON - THE BOY DOES NOTHING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye!

 

Images taken in Tsavo West, Kenya; July 2012.

 

When we first saw this guy we feared the worst! He was lying by the side of an infrequently used track and looked dead -as if he had been struck by a vehicle.

Ben cut the engine and we slowly free-wheeled towards him. At that point we were looking for signs of life! He surprised us all by opening his eyes and yawning -but now we were really too close and I have to shamefully admit that I had to suppress a strong compulsion to reach out and clap him.

Ben started the engine and we crept slowly back to a respectable distance -he didn't flinch! We watched him for about 30 minutes during which time he yawned, scratched and rolled in the warm sand ........but clearly any real activity was out of the question!

We did note that the vegetation in this area was moving with ticks -our boy had an almost satiated tick on his right lower lip (see the image of him rolling on his back) and there were two active stripe-legged ticks on his raised paw.

After about half-an-hour of intensive inactivity we got bored and decided to move on but we did circle back later to check on him before making our way back to the lodge. As the light was fading he had become much more animated and we watched him yawn, stretch, then get to his feet. He moved off through scrub towards a rocky hillside where we could not follow but he was moving with ease and appeared well.

 

We can only conclude that this young male leopard was a naturally chilled-out cat .......or maybe it's a teenage boy thing!

 

 

[Game Warden]

Wonderful series of images: thank you for posting

[pault]

Well, he did turn over to show off his tummy!

 

(Hmmm.... first post after a longish absence isn't exactly a classic )