A cat of different spots

It has been a while since we had the Panthera project on the reserve. They come roughly once a year to do a survey on the leopard and wild dog populations. To do this, they use more or less 80 camera traps, or trail cameras. These they position on either side of a road, mostly at strategic spots. The reason two cameras are used at each spot is that they need both the right and left side of an animal photographed — this helps with individual identification, and contributes to the data needed to estimate numbers of nocturnal predators.

Recently I had a very interesting group of people on my vehicle. They arrived late. For some reason. Very late. It was dark by the time we were halfway back to the lodge from the gate where I'd collected them. At one point I had to stop to let another vehicle pass from the front — the roads are narrow. I wasn't planning to stand there long, so I left the vehicle idling.

The next second, Ivan touched me on the shoulder. He was standing next to me, outside the vehicle. At night. I was less than impressed, but he insisted he needed to urinate. I told him to just go behind the vehicle.

And this is where things went slightly wrong. For him.

Remember those trail cameras? Turns out "just behind the vehicle," where he went, was right between two of them. They'd already flashed us once as we drove through — but by now the timers must have reset. Because the flashes went off again. Both of them.

Catching Ivan. Taking a leak. In stereo.