Locations of sightings
Aalam Villu, Kombansanchaipooval
First Sighting
19th August 2017 at 3.00pm
1st October 2017 at 10.04am one Leopard at Kombansanchaipooval water hole. N 08.38774, E 079.95086
As we drove ahead towards the culvert our guide Tissa alerted us of a leopard at the edge of the forest. As the leopard was crouched down I suspected that it would move quickly in to the forest. Thus almost instinctively reached for my lens and managed to get a few images while handholding the camera and whispering to my friend to do so as well. As he was keen to get some “proper photographs” I drove ahead to turn the vehicle so that we would be able to rest our lenses on the beanbags but as I suspected the leopard had disappeared. However we decided to wait expecting the leopard to come to water. After about 10 minutes a sounder of 15 female Wild Boar accompanied by an adult male walked across the glade and entered the same forest patch the leopard moved in to. Almost instantly a sub adult Sambhur emerged from the forest patch in a state of panic, made a bellowing alarm call while running across the water body in our direction and dissapered in to the forest. In less than a minute a adult female Sambhur moved out of the same forest patch as well. I told my friend to keep the camera ready as any moment now the leopard could walk out and so he did. Perhaps the Wild Boar disturbed the leopards hunt. The leopard moved along the edge of the water body and lay down under the shade of a tree permitting us to get a few images. In a few minutes the male Wild Boar moved in to the water and did not notice the leopard. One by one the rest of the sounder moved in and as their numbers grew the Leopard quickly moved out of sight. Having examined the images I was able to identify this leopard as the Aalam Villu Male 2 (AVM 2). (with guide Tissa Ratnayake)
19th August 2017 at 3.00pm two Leopards at Aalam Villu. N 08.40158, E 079.95377
We drove down to Aalam Villu, which has completely dried up, and I started to survey the forest edge with my binoculars. To my sheer delight I spotted two leopards lying down at the edge of the forest across the dried up villu. One was a female and the other an adult male. Later upon examining the images I was able to identify the female as Panikkar Villu Female 2 PVFC 2. The male was about 6 years of age and this is my first sighting of this leopard. I named it Aalam Villu Male 2 AVM 2.
Even though we did not observe mating I suspected them to be a mating pair. In a few minutes the female moved in to the forest and the male was fast asleep. After about 12 minutes the male rolled over and in the process detected the presence of my vehicle. It looked in our direction and moved quickly in to the forest. We decided to do a short park round and come back to give the animals time to move back in to the open.
5.00pm we arrived at Aalam Villu and spotted the two leopards close to where they were seen earlier. The male was asleep sprawled on the soft sand and the female was by him but quite alert. Having looked in our direction for few minutes the female moved under a bush where she was partly visible. The male was oblivious to the arrival of our vehicle. After a few minutes two other vehicles arrived and the male looked in our direction and moved close to where the female was seated.
5.24pm then both of them walked together in to the thicket and out of sight. This time I was able to get better images of them. (with guide D.M.Wasantha)
