Leopard Onca

Male leopard named Onca for its Jaguar (Panthera Onca) - similar pattern. East of Kilimatonga Hills, fortunately not so far from Msembe airstrip.

Up there?

Leopard Onca is checking the tree for a favourite prey, rock or tree hyrax.

Leopard Onca

Rock Hyrax stalking.

Leopard Onca

Onca gave us about 7 eternal minutes resting and observing on the very same rock!

Onca on the rock

Ready to go!

Still on the same rock, but everyone could literally feel, that he is about to move. I'm glad that we anticipated 2 minutes before, where this wonderful cat would probably go next and Edmund positioned our Landrover perfectly for this once-in-a-lifetime Leopard image.

Concretizing plans

All of a sudden, Onca moved fast down and around some rocks and reappeard right in front of our position - as anticipated before!

On the hunt

Leopard Onca moved quickly out of the rock's shade and started to move on towards us.

Focused

And Leopard Onca moved on straight towards us to rest for a second or two in the shade of our landrover.

Leopard Onca

After having sprinted up, down and around volcanic rocks in pursuit of its prey, Leopard Onca disappeared and this iconic Leopard sighting came to an end.

Quick Encounter

Leopard on a large tree checking out the fastest way out. Unlike Onca with whom we had 16 eternal minutes at Kilimatonga hills, Ruaha NP, this guy gave us around 10 seconds only before disappearing down the backside of that trunk!