サファリではどんな動物も見つけると嬉しいですが、見ることが出来て特に嬉しかったのがレオパード（豹）。（英語ではレパードと発音します。）同じネコ科でもライオンやチータは結構出てきますが、豹は警戒心が強くあまり姿を見せず、ライオンなどに襲われる場合に備えて木の上にいたりすぐ木の上に逃げられるように木が多い場所にいるため発見率が低いのだそうです。クルーガー国立公園は、豹が多く発見率が高いことで知られているそうです。

Whatever the animals we see, it was great to see them in the safari, but we were specially happy to have seen a leopard.  While lions and cheetahs show their appearance relatively often, I am told that leopards are the least social and keep to themselves so it’s hard to find them, they stay on top of a tree or near a tree, where they can climb up the tree quickly when a lion or some other predator comes.  Kruger National Park is supposed to have a good rate of finding them.

この目の前のブッシュに隠れていました。１台ジープが止まっていてしばらく姿を現してくれるのを待っていたようでした。

It was in this bush when we arrived.  A jeep was parked a little way away waiting for the leopard to come out of the bush.  At this stage we couldn’t see it.

もう１台のジープが諦めて動いてくれたので、私たちがその位置に。あ、見えた！

The other jeep gave up after a little while so we moved to a spot where we could see the leopard.  There he is!

あ、あくびしてる！ネコ科は行動を起こす直前にあくびをするそうですが、

Oh, he is yawning!  Apparently, cats yawn just before they start doing something.

その通り、ゆっくりと歩いて出てきました！

And here he is, he came out of the bush.

のそのそのそ。斜めに出てきて

He walked diagonally very slowly,

方向を変えて、

Then changed his direction

すぐ斜め前のブッシュの中に入ってしまいました。

And went into another bush.

この間、ほんの１０秒くらいでしょうか。ヒョウ柄の見事なこと！当たり前ですけど。

It was just 10 seconds or so from when the leopard came out of one bush and disappeared into the other.  Look how beautiful is his “leopard print”!

今更ですが、自分の腕を棚に上げて、もっと良いカメラと良いレンズを使っていたかった！と思ってしまいます。これは、ほぼマックスの望遠（３００ミリ）で撮っていますのでぶれてます。

I so wished I had a better camera and a better lens – even though I know it’s more likely that it’s my technique that is a problem.  We were relatively far from him and I was using maximum zoom (300mm) most of the time so they are  a little out of focus.  I also wish I took him with a wider lens as well so we can see how far he was from us, but we really didn’t have time to do much.

滅多に姿を見せてくれない豹がしっかり写真を撮ることが出来るくらい姿を見せてくれたとあって、ガイドさんも満足そう。やはりガイドさんはわたしたちが喜ぶとやりがいを感じられるのだと思います。

The guide was very happy and satisfied that we saw the leopard with such a great condition, he said we couldn’t have had a better sighting considering how rare it is for a leopard to show any of it’s appearance.

現地からもアップしたのですが、ビデオもアップしておきます。あまりに短い上に、間違って途中でストップを押してしまって２つになっていますが。

I have already uploaded one of the videos but I’m going to put these 2 very short videos up.  They are in 2 videos because , unfortunately, I touched the “stop” button in the middle by mistake.