The leopard mother showed extreme patience while her jovial cub practiced climbing a small tree in the reserve. The cub playfully climbed the tree with success, however, owing to the tree’s size, had trouble staying in its branches.
He kept on falling down to the ground, and twice fell on top of Mom, who was sitting nearby. She watched over her cub with motherly devotion while the playful interlude unfolded.
Small leopard shows determination to climb
With their natural agility and strength, leopards are built for climbing trees, and this curiosity with climbing begins at an early age.
Get our Best Sightings as they Come in
In spite of falling down many times, this determined young leopard kept at it and had nothing but climbing on his mind. He examined the small tree and the branches each time he began a new attempt to scale to its heights.
Falling does not stop this persistent cub from trying
Each time he climbed up, since the branches were not thick enough to support his weight, he would then fall down, back to the ground below.
The mother leopard seemed to be in the way every time, and she provided the ‘soft place’ for him to fall. One had to take one’s hat off to her as she didn’t even flinch, in spite of the cub’s rather large size.
She continued to wait patiently beneath the tree while the cub persisted – climbing and falling, and then climbing and falling again…
However pointless this exercise appeared to be, this climbing practice will no doubt stand the cub in good stead for future endeavours. It is through play and through mimicking their mother that leopard cubs learn the skills they will need to succeed later in life.
Leopards are usually solitary animals, however, a mother leopard will remain glued to her cub, as mentor, protector and provider, until the little one is sufficiently grown and trained to take on life by himself.
This playful little fellow wasn’t quite ready for life on his own. For now it was all playtime and experimentation for him.
Cub tries one last time to scale tree
The cub made one more attempt up the tree, appearing for a moment that he might have actually made it and succeeded in finding a suitable foothold!
However, he soon came tumbling from the branches and hit the ground, leaving a cloud of dust around him. This time, he managed to miss his mother, who now sat with her back turned to the camera.
Cub regathers strength, preparing for next adventure
The cub then lay for a few moments on the ground, panting and regathering his strength.
At this point, the mother leopard appeared to be ready to move on and started to walk away from the tree.
The cub would soon follow in her path; still an avid student of life with his mother as mentor.
Further along their path, there was sure to be another adventure for the cub. It was all in a day’s work!
