The Mating Pair
“Leopards have always been my first love”. As the full loaded canter with lot of eager eyes were searching for some extraordinary sightings, there came the sighting of the day. Luckily we spotted the spotted beauty of Kabini. The great bold Male Leopard was sitting on top of the temple. To our surprise a small cute female leopard was growling below the male Leopard.
YES! They were MATING!
They were Torn Ears and Kate, the Sunkadakatte resident pair have raised many Cubs together over the years. The moment our canter stopped the Leopardess crouched behind a small rock, the female could not be seen from our end of camera. Everybody rushed to back seat of canter to photograph the beautiful pair but only male was seen from that angle, some spark in me made me rush to the front seat were it was totally empty. I popped out of the canter to try different angle where Especially with the leopardess, this triggered her curiosity as she can see someone moving out from the human pack! As she slightly popped her head to look at what I was trying to do, came this bewildering shot.
I really wanted to capture both of them in focus. So I adjusted my depth of field to fill them in focus range. Yeah finally a different decision of mine got the lifetime sighting of Leopards mating and both focused in a single frame.!
Viky Chillz, India, Chennai
