Soysambu Conservancy

Category: Conservation, endangered species | Date: Sep 10 2009 | By: Soysambu guest blogger

Guest blogger Alan Turner, volunteer on Soysambu, recounts a brilliant night game drive earlier this week.

We weren’t expecting to see very much when we left for our night game drive yesterday. We’d heard that a leopard had been spotted the previous night by the Lake, but we still weren’t getting our hopes up too high. But as seems to happen a lot in Kenya, the coolest things happen when you’re not expecting them. About 15 minutes into the drive, we stopped suddenly and Duncan, our guide for the night, shone his light onto a figure in the distance and whispered excitedly “Do you see that?”. In the spotlight was a huge male leopard staring straight at us and hanging from his mouth was a full-grown male impala, still kicking. The leopard was very wary of us, as well as a spotted hyena which was hanging around in the distance. After several minutes, the leopard began dragging the impala towards the thicket. It took about 30 minutes for him to reach the bush, as he stopped, panting, every 10 meters to rest and look for any danger. Finally he made it to the thicket and we watched as he struggled to drag the impala up a rocky hill, and finally disappeared into the bush. Hopefully he enjoyed his meal.

Tags: impala, leopard, Soysambu Conservancy