The chacma baboons had started moving away from the waterhole, which was nestled in a steep- sided gorge. Troop ‘elders’ led in a purposeful manner, while youngsters and some who had been resting in shady spots slowly followed suit.
My colleague Charmaine and I followed, as many of the baboons settled around a rocky outcrop halfway up the hillside. But as we joined them (these baboons are the subject of a long-running research project and are almost completely habituated to human observers) we noticed that the mood had changed. Something was bothering them.
We scanned the surrounding dry scrub for signs of a potential predator, but saw and heard nothing. They seemed to be focusing their increased aggression on a space beneath the outcrop, with adult males picking fights with anyone in their way.
But slowly the troop calmed down, and as it did, the baboons spread out, some staying where they were, others going back downhill. I decided to follow one of the groups to see why they had chosen to break away from the main body.
But as I was heading towards the resting baboons, they jumped up and started barking vociferously. At which point, Charmaine, who was still at the vantage point I had left minutes before, shouted, “Leopard!”
“Where?” I replied, trying to decipher its location. It seemed I could see everything except the animal that had created the alarm.
Leopards can be dangerous to both baboons and humans, and standing in the narrow gully below the outcrop, I realised that I was in a very vulnerable position. It seemed as though the leopard had bolted from somewhere near to the baboons I was moving towards, and I had no idea which direction it was heading. I had to move out, but to where?
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I retreated back up the hill as fast as I could, not only for my own preservation but to try and get a better view of the commotion around me. It took a few sweat-pouring minutes of bounding over boulders and slipping on the loose scree to reach Charmaine and where I had started from.
“They chased it out towards the riverbed,” she said, “and I last saw it disappearing intothat patch of vegetation.” I scanned the area she was pointing at with my binoculars for several minutes, but nothing moved. The leopard had melted back into the landscape, as leopards often do.
Meanwhile, the proud adult male baboons who had done the chasing swaggered back to the rest of the troop, heads held higher and shoulders looking broader, as if expecting a celebratory fanfare or round of applause.
Reflecting on the incident later I was disappointed to have missed seeing the leopard for myself, and felt unnerved at just how well hidden a big cat could be in this landscape of rocky crevices. But – on the plus side – at least I now know that baboons can make great bodyguards.
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Josh Flatman is an African travel expert and writer with a background in conservation. He runs Faran Travel, which specialises in tailor-made adventures to wild destinations around the world.
