GOLDEN SILHOUETTE

Seronera is an area toward the western edge of the Serengeti Plains. Acacia and "sausage" trees grow along the watercourses there and at ground level, ample cover is provided by dense scrub and tall grass. This is the leopard's favorite domain. The leopard's favorite prey includes Thompson's gazelle and impala, although they will hunt anything small, including birds. The prey animals are well award of the danger lurking in dense cover in the stream beds and will venture there only to cross with fearful trepidation and best speed or when grazing on the ridges between the streams has become scarce. That is no problem to the leopard. He will spend his day draped in the branches of a favorite tree, avoiding the worst of ground-level insects, catching a welcome cooling breeze and, through lazy, half-closed eyes, mentally logging the movements and locations of possible prey which he can see from his treetop lookout post. At dusk, he will descend, move at leisure up or down his watercourse highway and emerge at a point where his instincts direct him to hunt.