Adorable moment leopard cub seen playing with its loving mother

The leopard is one of the most difficult wild animals to find in the African bush. Finding this elusive, solitary big cat in the wild is a truly remarkable experience on its own. Getting to see two leopards together, a mother and cub, was just a priceless experience. I managed to capture a few quick and adorable moments of love, care and playfulness between the female leopard and her cute cub.

It was early morning on a safari in the Kruger National Park when we got word of a female leopard that was spotted in a nearby area. Just knowing that a leopard has been spotted in the area you traverse already gets people excited. Tracking down a leopard in the dense and vast bush can be a challenging task. After checking through the whole area thoroughly, we were finally lucky enough to spot the tracks of a female leopard that was walking down the gravel road. The search for the leopardess became even more exciting when we spotted another pair of much smaller tracks. It was clear that this female had a cub with her.

With master tracking skills from our professional tracking team, they managed to locate the leopardess and her cub in a dry riverbed after another hour of searching. We were notified of the location and made our way there immediately. On our arrival we were absolutely stunned by the sight of the leopardess and her tiny cub, playing and cuddling around with each other in the sand. We kept our distance and enjoyed the brief visual of these two leopards. The leopard cub seemed extremely playful while running and jumping on his mother, nibbling her ears and lying down next to its mother to be cuddled and carefully licked clean.

The mother leopard showed so much love and compassion for her little cub which was really heart-warming to watch. The mother leopard eventually got up and it was time to go. The cub remained playful by running after its mother while attempting to catch her tail. The two leopards slowly moved out of the riverbed and disappeared into the thick bush. We left the two leopards in peace and carried on with our safari. It was just incredible to see such a bond of love between a mother and her cub and we left feeling totally overwhelmed by the whole experience.