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Eye of the Leopard
By Dereck Joubert & Beverly Joubert
Publisher: Rizzoli
"If the eye expresses life and soul and what lives inside, leopards are the eye of Africa, linked through a connective nerve directly to what this continent means and symbolizes."
Dereck Joubert
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Eye of the Leopard is a visual celebration of these beautiful cats, the country they call home, and two photographers with a lifelong passion for photographing them.
"I saw the movie and got the book and, although it is not what we
usually write about for arcspace, I was so enthralled by both that I
had to add them to our Bookcase."
KK
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Upon finding a mother leopard and her three-day-old cub, the Jouberts capture the remarkable beauty of one leopard’s life and follow her gripping story as she battles to survive and complete her own life’s journey into motherhood.
We found her lying up in a low branch, just as I had visualized. When we arrived, she didn’t even look up. Why should she, we’d been walking together for nine hours.
She had mated, given birth, lost her cubs, and mated again five times without once nurturing a cub beyond three months. This was the sixth attempt of motherhood and we wondered how this could be sustainable.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
She sniffed the front of the vehicle and looked at us for a long minute and the relaxed. She wanted to make very sure that her cub was going to be safe. She was the guardian and guide, and her time had at last come.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
We were following the cub one day, when she was already four month old. Suddenly the sky thickened and one of those fantastic African storms slammed down on us. She was terrified, and chose to snuggle up against the side of the vehicle, at my foot, where she sat until the storm had passed, looking out at the flashing skies and torturous lashes of rain. From then on Legadema, which means Light from the Sky (or lightning), became her name.
Her mother, Tortillis, was named after her liking of living in the high Acacia tortillas treetops near the Mombo Camp, the best place for viewing the world. She was a tree cat, living in and out of holes in sausage trees (Kigelia) and sometimes visiting a regular perch in an ancient baobab tree.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
In time, of course, Legadema grew up. She started going with her mother on territorial patrols and nudging her way innocently and eagerly into adulthood. Ironically, as she matured, she moved more into our lives and started interacting with us more, but it was this mother and daughter relationship that consumed us and them.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 20099
We had been away for some months after our filming, and while editing the next film we arrived back in Mombo and found her sitting on a termite mound. Within a few minutes, during which her eyes never left us, she stood up and walked over. She looked up into Beverly’s eyes for a long minute or two, and then blinked, slid under the vehicle and up on my side.
The forest didn’t let up on her. It had its upper hand, and as this immature female wandered around she made one mistake after another, stalking up to zebras only to be caught out and chased hell for leather through the undergrowth. Too many times she ended up in the thick thorns of a low acacia hebeclada tree where not even a baboon could reach in and drag her out. Beverly’s consumption of the herbal tincture called Rescue Remedy increased with each narrow escape Legadema pulled off. It’s a tonic that calms the nerves after a shock. Beverly started carrying some with her all the time!
But Legadema survived, more often by pure fluke than by design. Slowly, like watching a dead body revive, we saw her start to gain strength. She was getting her old inquisitiveness back. That old mischief started to glint in her eyes again. She stalked in on mongoose and impala, zebras, and even elephants, most of which chased her off course but it was a start.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
We both knew that look.
It was the wild look and more.
Something beyond that stare.
She was transformed now.
Alive, vital and ready.
She was a huntress.
A thousand generations old.
Photo © Beverly Joubert, Eye of the Leopard, Rizzoli, 2009
“For years I missed seeing leopards. I’d be just a moment too late, or the vehicle following would see one. We’d sit for hours watching a patch of grass, convinced that it harbored a spotted cat, or drive endlessly in circles throught the bush after an alarm call by impala. Then one day, at Mombo I saw a large male step outof the undergrowth and I understood why the Jouberts have been so fascccinated by these cats for so long. One look into those amber eyes and you know that you are seeing a truly wild cat.”
Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama
President of the Republic of Botswana.
Multiple Emmy Award winners Dereck and Beverly Joubert, recently nominated to be "Explorers-in-Residence" at the National Geographic Society, are filmmakers, photographers, writers, and conservationists. Their goal is to enhance conservation. Working with the National Geographic Society and based in Botswana, the Jouberts have managed to influence both policy and perceptions of the wild for more than 25 years.
Eye of the Leopard
Dereck Joubert (Author)
Beverly Joubert (Photographer)
Lt. Gen. Ian Khama (Foreword)
Publisher: Rizzoli
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The National Geographic - Eye of the Leopard (2006) film version won an Emmy Award.
The film take viewers on an enthralling journey deep into the rarely seen lives of leopards. It is a journey of birth, life and death as a mother leopard and her first surviving cub of six, fight off marauding baboons and elude scavenging hyenas in a constant struggle for survival. This 90 minute cinematographic experience is brought to life by Dereck and Beverly Joubert and is narrated by Oscar winner Jeremy Irons.
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Botswana – The Selinda Reserve
The Selinda Reserve is a 320,000 acre reserve that straddles the Okavango Delta in the west & the Linyanti / Kwando / Savuti rivers & waterways to the east. In spite of its enormous size, the reserve has only 16 tented rooms in three separately located semi-permanent tented camps.
In late 2007 when planning for Zarafa Camp started nothing was spared to ensure that it was the most environmentally sustainable luxury lodge anywhere. Today Zarafa is where extreme green meets sumptuous luxury, within an appropriate safari atmosphere and absolute style.
Photo courtesy Dook
Photo courtesy Dook
Photo courtesy Dook
Photo courtesy Dook
Up until 2005 Selinda Reserve was a dual-use hunting and photographic safari reserve. Photo safari guests could be admiring lion, leopard, elephant or buffalo or any one of a number of antelope in the morning – and later on that day unbeknown to the photo safari guests, the animal could be shot by professional big game hunters as they migrated westward away from the waters and into the woodlands to feed.
Times changed when new owners Dereck & Beverly Joubert and their partners bought the Selinda Reserve. The wildlife now sense that the Selinda is a place of peace. Elephants no longer have to drink on the run before sprinting back to the forests to avoid being shot. One can now spend hours watching elephants & their families drinking, grazing contentedly & at ease.
November 16, 2009