Leopard spoor on the shore

Is a leopard roaming the shores of the Bot River Estuary? Megan Campbell of Whale Coast Conservation (WCC) believes so. She tells this tale:.

“Every track tells a tale and this tale has a twist in the tail. The fresh leopard tracks I discovered on Sandown Bay beach early Saturday morning, between the estuary mouth and Kleinmond, were a rare and amazing sight. To my knowledge, leopards have not been seen in this area before, until a Meerenbosch resident reported a week ago that she had seen a leopard outside her house. No doubt this was the same one. The spoor were large and the length between the rear-most hind leg and front-most foreleg measured approximately 1,5 meters.

“Returning to the mouth, I picked up the spoor again, this time with another long thin print running alongside the spoor, as though it was dragging something along. It led to an area where there was an obvious scuffling and a mixture of both leopard and large seabird prints, which seem to belong to a pelican. One could imagine that the leopard had caught the bird and then carried it along, dragging a wing on the ground as it went.

“The next moment, I noticed the large bird footprints nearby, going inland from the sea, also appearing to be dragging something, making quite large zig-zag prints. Shortly the mystery was revealed a large 25cm fish lay dead on the sand, bereft of his innards. The story I pieced together is that this large bird had dragged the fish up to the dunes to enjoy a scrumptious breakfast, then lay blissfully digesting his meal nearby before becoming a doubly delicious meal for the leopard a few moments later.”

By Megan Campbell

Source: Hermanus Times