Nat Hab's 2024 Guest Photo Contest

Species: Leopard | Location: Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

It was early morning on the Kenya Tanzania border, with NatHab East Africa Migration: Photo Pro tour, when we spotted a mother leopard with four cubs, a rarity. It turns out this was a well-know mother named Risasi. We followed the beautiful and sound family for a few hours, observing the cubs playing, crossing road in front of us, and watching mother hunt. We left them and continued on to explore other areas. The next morning we searched and found Risasi and her family again, but she only had 3 cubs. We were heartbroken at loss of one cub, but our guide explained this was part of nature and that leopard mothers are lucky to raise one cub out of a several cub litter. We followed Risasi for an hour and noted she appeared anxious, looking above the grass, with frequent roars, and that she appears to be looking for something, which we thought to be the lost cub. The remaining three cubs stayed close to her'

Suddenly, after the hour of searching, the fourth cub appeared out of the grass and ran to mother. Risasi had found her missing cub. We were overjoyed. Risasi licked her cub incessantly and the four siblings engaged in play attacks on each other. Risasi then took her family to a small hill in the grass so she could assess the landscape and I was able to get this photo of the family.