There are just a handful of sightings that I do want to point out on my own.On our second safari out, we basically came up short - save for a tiger paw print on the road, and a mongoose sighting. So as we head out of the park, we see a leopard, technically Panthera pardus, moving in the forest about 50 feet away.
They are notoriously skittish, so once it knows we're there (not sure how it didn't hear the Jeep), it stops dead and turns completely invisible. If you didn't see it move at the beginning and know where to look, there was no way you could have seen him. In fact, the driver missed him, and it took us several minutes to explain exactly where he was.
After freezing for less than a minute, he gets up and runs out of the forest and up the mountain. The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds, but we'll never forget it.
The guide says that we were incredibly lucky, since most people can go on 30 safaris and still never see one. I put in the first photo to show how amazing its hiding ability is.
