The shy leopardess (nicknamed Houdini for her vanishing skills), who is rarely seen, was last night spotted from an amazing 1.5kms away. Her location given away only by a silhouetted tale-tale tail sporadically twitching below the overhanging bough of a big sausage tree on the edge of the Eseketa escarpment.

On slow approach through a rock field past a herd of Impala, hopes were raised that perhaps a hunt might be in progress. But as the Mara Plains vehicle and guests excitedly took in the scene it unfolded that, not only had the leopardess already killed and stashed her Impala for breakfast in the tree, she was not alone. Her now one-year-old male cub was greedily devouring one of TWO Impalas in the tree with the setting African sun highlighting the picture.

What an exciting thought that, in training her fast-growing cub to hunt Impala by pouncing on a baby and waiting for mum to come looking for it, the lethal mother and son team of leopards might actually be ambushing 2 for 1 meals! Houdini didn’t seem to be getting much of a look into this bumper buffet though as her cub has a seriously healthy appetite. It looks like he will grow up to be very powerful, handsome male and will hopefully feature often as a new character in the ongoing Mara plains soap opera of big cats, though if he is anything like as elusive as his mother he will be difficult to keep track of.