National Geographic: Eye of the Leopard Page #3

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Today it is still a magnet for her.

She must respond.

There is a certain...

conduct among leopards.

Approach carefully and discretely,

even if you are a friend...

...or you will be treated like an enemy.

So Legadema bides her time,

careful not to give herself

away to the forest,

but slowly heading north

towards the calls,

towards a meeting

that might change her life.

Legadema's delicate maneuvering towards

her mother is typical of a solitary cat's life.

She learned how to be alone

very early in life.

When she was three months old,

Legadema was already on her own

for days at a time.

It was a huge risk.

At that age, cubs are desperate to see the world,

and Legadema was no exception.

The slightest movement nearby of anything even

vaguely her fighting weight was fair game.

Some prey are not very accommodating.

Monitor lizards are quick and dangerous,

and her instincts told her to get around

behind the hissing dragon,

but when some thorns got behind her,

her confidence was destroyed.

As Legadema wandered off further and further

from where she had been left,

she went deeper into the unknown,

testing her boundaries,

but exposing herself to dangers

she could not even imagine.

Her mother had lost two cubs

like this before,

lost in an impossible maze

of fallen trees and thickets

or snatched up by some passing opportunist.

But this time alone, established the style

of life Legadema would have to lead.

She was learning to be independent.

The calls from her

mother have stopped,

but Legadema can "feel" her presence.

A distant monkey alarm pinpoints her,

the birds suddenly taking flight.

A sudden silence,

all clues that she doesn't miss.

She turns north to intercept her.

When she hears the alarm nearby,

she knows it can't be her mother.

The forest seems to

conspire against leopards,

and Legadema is as curious as any

to see what the problem is.

Monkeys litter the forest.

Because of the ideal

feeding conditions here,

each troop can virtually see

their neighbors most of the time.

Fights break out,

and Legadema leaves off going to meet

her mother to investigate the ruckus.

It's worth the distraction.

Monkeys have always held

a... special place in her heart.

Her intense interest in monkeys started when she

was just a few months old, watching her mother.

To catch a monkey is nearly impossible.

It is a mind game, a careful calculation of

how to get to the taunting little apes.

As a young impressionable cub,

Legadema watched every move

her mother made and learned.

What makes it such a challenge,

is that these agile little apes

flip lightly from tree to tree,

cleverly understanding that

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