Discovering A Leopard in Sabiepark Is A Spectacular Adventure!

It was night time in Sabiepark. But nary a sign of the leopard catchers. Furtively peering over my shoulder, I started a fire, while noting every sound around me. I could hear the ominous sound of snapping twigs in the dark. I was not happy at all with the lack of response after my urgent call for help.

“You’re very fortunate,’’ park manager David Zeller informed me the next morning, to my surprise. “A leopard on your doorstep so soon after moving in. Most of the longtime residents will be green with envy...’’ In Sabiepark terms my experience was indeed a bit unusual, but no terrifying occurrence, it began to dawn on me. In fact, spotting a leopard is considered a king-size bonus. About six leopards reside in and around Sabiepark, and occasionally a “fortunate’’ resident spots one – even in their braai lapas or on their stoeps.

In 2002, Clive and Leonora Robertson of Maroelani (erf 217 in Ghwarriebos Avenue) received an unusual “Christmas gift’’: a leopard relaxing on their stoep wall. Lucky residents sometimes spot two together – or even four, as happened to Johan and André Potgieter, co-owners of Leeuplesier (erf 240 in Apiesdoring Avenue), a stone’s throw from their own door.

Clive and Leonora had been visiting the Kruger Park on 24 December. It was not a bad day – they came across four of the Big Five: lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo. A leopard was all they needed to complete the picture. “Not to worry. When we get back home, we’ll find a leopard on our stoep,’’ Leonora joked – as it turned out – prophetically. Their home is at the top of Ghwarriebos. They had just arrived, when sure enough, a leopard rounded the corner – “the surprise of our lives’’, according to Leonora. Clive hurriedly reversed their pick-up van for a better camera angle. Just then the leopard clambered onto the stoep wall. The shutter clicked, capturing the magical moment on the last frame on the film.

A LEOPARD on the stoep – the unexpected Christmas gift for two Sabiepark residents.

Residents can thank their lucky stars that encounters between homo sapiens and panthera pardus have thus far occurred without incident. However, about twenty years ago a leopard did cause somewhat of a stir. Seven-year-old Lizette, youngest daughter of the first park warden, Ian Crabtree (currently living in Villiersdorp), was playing on her swing, about 10 meters from their home. Gradually she became aware of a spotted creature watching her. She went in to tell her parents of the leopard outside.

A year earlier two fairly docile cheetahs, Charles and Lady Di, had made Sabiepark their home. They moved in under some shady trees near the swimming pool, and they seemed to be so involved with one another that they hardly posed a threat to humans. But they had a steady appetite for ostriches, small antelope and even new-born zebra foals. Eventually they had to be relocated to the De Wildt breeding station at Hartebeespoortdam. The Crabtrees assumed Lizette was imagining seeing one of them.

They responded reassuringly to their daughter’s announcement. But on a Sunday afternoon Ian looked through a window. He stiffened as he saw a male leopard sunning himself next to their new car, barely 20 meters from Lizette’s swing. There was no time to be wasted. On the Monday arrangements were made to drug the animal and to find it a new home. “No problem,’’ responded Mike Rattray, owner of Mala Mala – a safe 30 kilometres across the Sand River from Sabiepark, where the leopard was eventually set free.

But lo and behold, after two days the culprit was back. With a vengeance. Even though the river was flooded. His first victim was an albino ostrich (ironically named Lizzie after Lizette Crabtree) right next to the family home. Two days later, a young kudu was killed – again not far from the Crabtree abode. Then an owner reported seeing a young couple and their child following a leopard that had just caught a warthog. The leopard was dragging its prey into the bushes alongside the river bank, again in the vicinity of the warden’s home.

DEPORTATION. The leopard that haunted 7-year-old Lizette Crabtree, rendered harmless and ready to be ‘deported’ to Mala Mala.

He instinctively knew it was the very same male, Crabtree later related. The animal had become a danger to all – especially if he was “spooked”. The Parks Board (now Sanparks), the Department of Nature Conservation at Nelspruit and the Sabi Sand Game Reserve were unanimous: get rid of it. Crabtree reluctantly set about carrying out the assignment from the observation deck next to his home near the river. He could clearly see the leopard dining on the warthog carcass.

I was unaware of this incident when I first encountered “my leopard’’ in March 1998. Also, little did I know that the Van Deventers would soon again meet up with Sabiepark’s leopards (see the last chapter, entitled Operation L). We came across the leopard and the rest of the Big Five under various circumstances – some alarming and some amusing. Life in Sabiepark is certainly not without surprises, I was to find out!