elusive one

The Elusive One ~ Morkel Erasmus

Morkel describes how he captured this magical moment:

It was over in a minute or two, but I will never forget the glimpse we had of this elusive and beautiful leopardess in Mana Pools.

They are resident in the area but not often seen and very skittish. We spotted her under the canopy of a tree on the edge of a bed of reeds in the Zambezi river late one afternoon after the sun had set and we were on our way back to camp.

I love that this is a TRULY wild leopard in one of the last TRULY wild places in Africa…and not one that we were able to almost impale in a game viewer without her budging.

She sat for a minute or two, gave us a fleeting glance, and disappeared into the reeds and out of sight.

The light was at an absolute minimum so I opened my lens aperture wide and pushed the ISO to 7200. | via 1x.com