Leopard's Tale

Almost everyone on safari hopes for a glimpse of the charismatic and elusive leopard. Chui was the first of a new generation of leopards Jonathan Scott watched and photographed in Kenya''s Masai Mara Game Reserve in the 1970s and 1980s. He spent every available moment watching and photographing Chui and her cubs, Light and Dark, aware that he was only privileged to do so for as long as they chose to remain visible. His classic account tells the story of the mother leopard as a solitary hunter providing for herself and her offspring. He records encounters with baboon, hyaena and man, hazards facing the cubs as they learn to fend for themselves and periods of play and relaxation. Some years after Chui disappeared, a young female appeared, Half-Tail. Jonathan and Angela have followed her and her daughter Zawadi, stars of the BBC''s Big Cat Diary, for the past twenty years, bringing the story up to date. Nobody has studied leopards more closely or known them more intimatelyJonathan says: '