MEMORIES
OF GOLDIE
 “Goldie
was a female leopard that we had the privilege
of following for the first eight years of Kaingo’s
operation. My first sighting of her was while
on a night drive with my father, my uncle and
my sister – who were visiting Kaingo during
the building phase (1992). We found this beautiful
female leopard with a cub feeding on a puku high
up in a sausage tree. We parked right under the
tree and watched for an hour as they fed. Then
a male – presumably the father came in elbowing
and growling his way in to get “his share”.
While watching, I glanced back to see my uncle
just lying down across the game-viewing seat looking
up – what a cool way to observe a wild leopard
from 1mt above!
Over the years I had many close
encounters and hours of fun watching Goldie. She
was very tame even in daylight and it seemed almost
enjoyed seeing us humans as much as we thrilled
in seeing her. She never ran off to hide and one
evening she lay barely 50m away from our sundown
stop – never twitching, just lying peacefully.
She would often come and lie in front of the vehicle,
clean herself in readiness for the evening’s
hunt. We shared many experiences with her during
our drives and over time I got to know her hunting
methods.
 Goldie
was especially good at using topographical cover,
in particular the dry gullies. I would always
check all the regular gullies that criss-crossed
the flood plains that border the river and often
found her crouched low waiting for nearby unsuspecting
puku or impala to get within range (about 5-10m).
She was fearless and never failed to impress her
human audience and became like friend to me as
she helped set the new camp’s reputation.
During those years we witnessed kills, cubs, hunting
guinea fowl in the mahogany tree at the Kaingo’s
fireplace while we were seated underneath having
a beer. We followed her marking, mating and calling.
She was honey gold in colour, moved like molten
metal and had a certain zip and tolerance of humans
that is quite rare.
Towards the end of her tough
life, she sprained her front ankle really bad
and could not hunt for herself for almost a month.
It tore me up just to watch her hobbling and her
enemies and prey mocking her weakness as she struggled
along. As I was about to break all the rules and
start throwing her defrosted chickens, she miraculously
recovered. She went on to live for another two
years.
  The
last time I saw her she was lying under one of
her favourite bushes close to a gully looking
weathered but still with that grace of the wildlife
filmstar she was.
I remember looking long and deep into her golden
eyes – feeling her years as my tears started
rolling down; I knew this was the last time I
would see my friend...
Although I never found her bones,
she did leave behind a strong male son (“Goldie’s
Son”) who is still the dominant male in
the acacia loop area. She also left plenty of
precious memories”.
Extracts & pictures
courtesy of Derek & Jules Shenton |
GOING GORILLA
