Leopard Spotted

Published Wednesday, March 22, 2006 by Ms. Russell | E-mail this post

March 22. We finally found that leopard we’ve been looking for—in broad daylight, no less! We followed the leopard off-road a ways, taking pictures and observing. As we watched, the leopard passed slowly in front of a line of bushes. Just on the other side of those bushes, a little ways ahead of the leopard, a Grevy’s zebra was grazing. We were all totally silent, holding our breaths and waiting to see what would happen… Nothing happened! The Grevy’s kept right on grazing and the leopard walked on by without really taking much notice of each other at all. I guess a single leopard is not much of a threat to a big animal like the Grevy’s zebra. Or maybe he just wasn’t hungry…

1 Responses to “Leopard Spotted”

Anonymous on 5:11 AM

I found this to be very interesting. Is a leopard a natural predator of the Grevy's zebra? I would think a carnivore like the leopard would have just pounced right away. Was the leopard threatened in any way? Is that why it just walked past? Maybe having humans around at the location made the leopard feel threatened. Are there a lot of leopards around the zebras on a daily basis? Do you know the population of leopards in Leewa? How does the presence of the leopards affect the zebra population?

I still find it very strange that a carnivore such as a leopard would just stroll right past potential prey.

Are there other natural predators around the zebras during the day? How many other natural predators of the zebras are there? I'd very much like to visit Africa and find out about these predators.

About me

Hi! My name is Shayne Russell, and I'm the Library Media Specialist at Kenneth R. Olson Middle School in Tabernacle, NJ. Come along with me on an adventure to Kenya, Africa! We will be working as volunteer researchers, side-by-side with scientists who are studying the endangered Grevy's Zebra. Let's see what research looks like... outside of the library!