In Touch with Nature – Leopards
Posted: March 25, 2026 Filed under: Animals, In Touch With Nature, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Wildlife | Tags: #InTouchWithNature, #RobbieCheadle, In Touch With Nature, Leopards, Robbie Cheadle, South Africa, Writing to be Read 24 Comments
Introduction and fun facts
Leopards are my husband’s favourite animal. They are very difficult to see in the wild because they are nocturnal, they are rare, and they are solitary. The best game reserve in South Africa to see leopards is Sabi Sands and this is where we went for our wedding anniversary last year to finally get good sightings of leopards.
We were at the reserve for 48 hours and went on 4 game drives during that time. We had two wonderful sightings of leopards. The first was of a mother and her juvenile youngster. The second was of the father.
Here are a few initial facts about leopards:
- Most leopards are light coloured and have dark spots called rosettes on their fur. There are also black leopards which also have spots, but the spots are hard to see against their dark fur. Black leopards are called melanistic leopards;
- Leopards are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, Northeast Africa, Central Asia, India, and China;
- Unlike lions, leopards are extremely solitary animals and they mark their territory with scratches, urine, and feces to warn other leopards to stay away;
- The only time you’ll see two adult leopards together in a single territory is if they are a male and female looking to mate;
- Leopards can achieve a running speed to nearly 60 kilometers per hour and can leap up to 6 meters forward;
- Leopards make a wide variety of sounds from coughing to growling. Leopards also purr when they are happy;
- Leopards carry their prey into trees to eat. Leopards eat a wide variety of animals from monkeys to rodents to birds to antelopes. Leopards also eat cheetah cubs;
- Leopards have very long tails to help them balance when climbing, running or changing direction;
- Leopards have specially adapted retinas that enable them to hunt in the pitch black of the jungle; and
- The English name ‘leopard’ emans ‘spotted lion’ in Latin.
Gallery and You tube videos
The gallery below sets out some of the photographs I took of a female leopard.
Picture captions: The pictures in the gallery above are of a female leopard. Her kill had fallen from the tree and she was picking at the remains. She then went up the tree and was resting on a branch and cleaning herself just like a house cat. The last picture is a dead baby zebra in a tree. It was dragged up there by a leopard which then left it to go and get a drink of water. It was a very tiny zebra so a little sad but leopards have to eat.
This is my You tube video of the leopard nibbling on its kill:
This is my You tube video of the female leopard grooming herself in the tree:
Leopard in a Tree – artwork
Picture caption: Leopard in a Tree – original charcoal artwork by Robbie Cheadle.
The Watcher (freestyle)
Dear Ranger
I am sorry
I didn’t oblige you
And make an appearance
For your paying guests.
You can’t blame me
For being wary
Of people.
After all
The guest farm
Right next door
Allows canned hunting
By wealthy tourists.
The lions are bred
And raised by hand
In captivity
Then,
Their caregivers
Release them
Into a caged enclosure
To be hunted down
As trophies.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Leopards are not spared
This barbaric treatment
Although fewer of us
Are murdered this way
Our dead heads removed
To grace the walls
Mouths gaping open
In a humiliated grimace
Called a fierce pose
By the false hunters.
Run off our traditional land
By grasping humans
Who have the right
To life and liberty,
Freedom from slavery
And torture,
Freedom of opinion
And expression,
The right to work
And to education.
What about me?
Here in the reserve
I’m relatively safe
Provided I don’t follow
My natural instincts
To travel and
Stay within the fences
Built by you
I know you’re a good one
But frankly,
It still grates me.
Then you bring
Truckloads of visitors
Who chatter
Point
And gawk
While rattling chip packets
And taking photographs.
SNAP! RATTLE! SNAP!
Nothing is sacrosanct,
You invade
Every part
Of my life
… Eating
… Sleeping
… Mating
My babies
Fodder
For prattling spectators
Hooing and cooing
Making fools of themselves.
And so, I hide
Deep within
The long grass
Or up high
In a tree,
Dreaming away
The long, quiet days.
Sometimes
I shake a whisker
Or twitch an ear
Sending the viewers
Into a frenzy
Hopefully anticipating
A leopard sighting
I lie
And grin
Thinking
And now
Who’s watching
Who?
From
The Leopard in the tree
The artwork and poem above are extracted from my poetry collection, Square Peg in a Round Hole available from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Square-Peg-Round-Hole-Creativity-ebook/dp/B0CW1H3SQV
About Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Roberta Eaton Cheadle, is a South African writer and poet specialising in historical, paranormal, and horror novels and short stories. She is an avid reader in these genres and her writing has been influenced by famous authors including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Amor Towles, Stephen Crane, Enrich Maria Remarque, George Orwell, Stephen King, and Colleen McCullough.
Roberta has two published novels and a collection of short stories and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories included in several anthologies. She is also a contributor to the Ask the Authors 2022 (WordCrafter Writing Reference series).
Roberta is also the author and illustrator of seventeen children’s books, illustrator to a further three children’s books, and the author and illustrator of four poetry books published under the name of Robbie Cheadle, and has poems and short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.
Roberta’s blog features discussions about classic books, book reviews, poetry, and photography. https://roberta-writes.com/.
Find Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Blog: https://wordpress.com/view/robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertawrites
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Roberta-Eaton-Cheadle/e/B08RSNJQZ5
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This segment of “In Touch with Nature” is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series and WordCrafter Press.
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