Leopard Sawing in a Devon Wood - 2024
I believe this video, recorded in May 2024, has picked up the sound of a leopard 'sawing' in a Devon wood just after dawn and some way off from the camera! The camera was triggered by a camouflaging fern moving in the breeze, that had dropped down in front of the sensor the night before, a blessing in disguise as it turns out and I thank God for this! It is followed on the very next video that was recorded a few minutes later, by the distress calls of a blackbird and a jay responding to the presence of a ground predator! I have put the two videos together to make one video but you can hear the start and end points of both videos. They have been cropped to disguise the location. I and others think this video is very significant, as it shows the sound of a leopard making territorial calling in a British wood! Orthodox books on British nature do not cover such behaviour from animals that are not, of course, officially recognised as living in our countryside in the wild at all!
Unfortunately the camera cannot capture the full depth of the sound like the high quality close proximity one in the Wild Earth video did below but you can hear the rhythmical breath intake of the animal. It would have sounded much clearer and deeper if you had been in the wood nearer to the animal! It was recorded in a place where I have found many leopard scats and have twice captured what I believe to be a black leopard moving past my camera at speed. N.B This video was recorded in mid-May and is NOT a fallow deer or roe deer rut sound and deer do not saw.
I advise you to watch the video below first, which was filmed in Africa, if you are not familiar with the sound of a sawing leopard, then listen to the sawing leopard I recorded in a Devon wood!
Unfortunately the camera cannot capture the full depth of the sound like the high quality close proximity one in the Wild Earth video did below but you can hear the rhythmical breath intake of the animal. It would have sounded much clearer and deeper if you had been in the wood nearer to the animal! It was recorded in a place where I have found many leopard scats and have twice captured what I believe to be a black leopard moving past my camera at speed. N.B This video was recorded in mid-May and is NOT a fallow deer or roe deer rut sound and deer do not saw.
I advise you to watch the video below first, which was filmed in Africa, if you are not familiar with the sound of a sawing leopard, then listen to the sawing leopard I recorded in a Devon wood!
Click on the photo to hear South African tracker Mark Graves and Rick Minter, who runs the website Big Cat Conversations, discussing the sawing leopard recording.
See Reference to our Sawing Leopard Recording in the BBC Wildlife Magazine.
Click on Photo
Leopard Stamping, Growling and Chuffing in a Devon Wood - 2020
The video below was recorded on the 27th of June 2020 just after my camera snapped a photo of a leopard running at speed past one of my cameras in the same Devon wood. It was startled by the sound of people approaching and talking in the wood and stopped briefly to display its disdain by stamping its feet on the ground, growling and making a chuffing noise before hiding away somewhere in the woods! The video has been disguised to protect the location. I think it's extraordinary! N.B You will need headphones to hear it well.
Big Cat Scat
I found this suspected big cat scat in the wood on the 31st of May 2024.
Leopard Footprints
These leopard footprints were found in the same Devon wood in June 2024.
