LEOPARDS IN ZAMBIA
	Sundowner time in the South Luanga Valley.  I was having a pee in the long grass, when suddenly I heard shouts and screams.  I thought at the very least there was a lion stalking me, so quickly pulling up my trousers I ran back to our safari vehicle to discover that 2 Leopards had been sighted.  There was great excitement, because this was one of the reasons we had come to Zambia.  And there they were, a courting couple walking across the open grassland below us.  The drinks were hurriedly put back in the vehicle and we drove to get better views.  The female took refuge in a tree and the male retreated to the longer grass where he sat looking longingly at the female in the tree.  We didn’t approach too close, but waited about a hundred yards away, so as not to put them under any stress.  As soon as it was dark we were able to drive under the tree and get a wonderful view of the female.  I was so fascinated watching her that I completely forgot to take any photos until the guide reminded me.  The male had now come out from where he'd been sitting, again he felt safe in the dark.  We were able to follow him as he prowled around, at one point he walked a metre in front of the vehicle.  As other tourist vehicles had now arrived on the scene we left them to it and continued on our night drive.  The park closes at 8, and everyone has to be out by then, so there was no risk of the leopards being hassled. A night drive is taken with a spotter who scans around with a powerful spotlight.  This doesn’t seem to worry the animals at all and we were able to watch civets, porcupines, genets and elephant shrews hunting and going about their business.  We wouldn’t normally be able to see these animals because they’re all nocturnal. Other highlights of our visit included watching lions feeding on a dead hippo and rescuing a vulture that had got its head stuck inside the dead hippo.  It took two of the guides to do this, one had to make the hole bigger by cutting it!  The hippo got decidedly smelly after 3 days.  We also went on walking safaris, one of the few places one is allowed to do this.  We had an armed scout with us for these walks, which was reassuring when we nearly walked into a small herd of elephants, not that the size of the herd would have made any difference if they had charged us!  We had been extremely well briefed about what to do in an emergency and when we were told to turn round and walk quietly in the opposite direction we automatically obeyed.  We weren’t even aware that it was elephants we were near until we were some way from them! We crossed a dried-up lagoon and were able to watch them in safety.  At one point when we were travelling from one camp to another we stopped beside the river with our two guides going into a huddle.  They then said if we looked across the river we would see a female leopard with two cubs!  They were very far off, but we could quite easily see the little dark coloured cubs who were bouncing along beside their mother.  After about ten minutes of watching them she turned into the forest and disappeared from sight. Altogether we had 9 sightings of leopards, an elephant strolled around our tent one afternoon and a family of warthogs practically came into our tent.  It is impossible to say what was THE highlight of our holiday, it was all so wonderful. Gabrielle Chadwick, Mobile Library Manager