Ku-Vona II
To see, to learn, to survive
The young leopard’s eyes were wide, his jaw parted as if caught between awe and uncertainty. He was staring upwards, watching his mother who had already carried their kill high into the branches of a tree. She had hauled the buck into the canopy with the effortless strength of her kind, muscles driving her up the trunk and into a secure fork where the prize now rested. From below, he studied every movement, absorbing the lesson that would one day mean the difference between life and death.
Leopards are remarkable for their ability to hoist heavy prey into trees, often lifting carcasses as heavy as themselves. This behaviour protects their kill from scavengers like hyenas and lions, both eager to steal what they cannot catch. It is a skill passed from one generation to the next, not through direct teaching but by observation. For the young male, every glance at his mother’s precision was instruction. Soon enough he would need to perfect it alone.
The African Leopard is one of the most adaptable big cats in the world, surviving in environments as varied as rocky escarpments, forests, and savannahs. Their diet is equally flexible—antelope, birds, rodents, reptiles, and in some cases even insects. This adaptability is what has allowed them to thrive across Africa for centuries, but even so, they remain under threat. Expanding farmland and settlements continue to fragment their ranges, while illegal trade and retaliatory killings take their toll. Despite being classified as vulnerable, in many areas their numbers are declining quietly, their secretive nature masking just how rare they are becoming.
As I stood there watching, the silence of the bush deepened. The cicadas quietened and the birds had already gone still with the fading light. All that remained was the sound of claws gripping bark and the rustle of leaves above. The adolescent cub did not move, his attention locked upwards, golden eyes fixed on his mother silhouetted in the canopy. He was not just watching—he was learning, preparing for the day when the lessons of this moment would guide his own survival.
That is what struck me most in this scene. It was more than a portrait of a young predator; it was a glimpse into the continuity of life in the wild. A mother passing on knowledge wordlessly, a cub absorbing it with quiet intensity. And yet, beneath that beauty lies fragility. The African Leopard, so skilled, so perfectly adapted, now faces a future dependent not only on instinct, but on whether we as humans will allow it the space to endure.
This image, which I named Ku-Vona (II)—“to see” in Tsonga—captures that moment of inheritance. A young leopard seeing, learning, and holding within his gaze the future of his kind.
About The Raw Africa Collection
The Raw Africa Collection is a series of fine art wildlife photographs capturing the untamed beauty, power, and diversity of Africa’s animal kingdom. Each image tells a story — moments of stillness, bursts of movement, and the raw essence of life in the wild.
