EPISODE 05: Becoming the Big Cat People – 'The Leopard's Tale'

Welcome to The Big Cat People podcast! We're Jonathan and Angela Scott, award-winning wildlife photographers, authors and conservationists. We've have made our name documenting the lives of lions, leopards and cheetahs in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Today's episode will be the third in a ten part series named 'Our Story: Becoming the Big Cat People'.

This episode is named, "The Leopard's Tale." To this day the leopard is still my favourite wild creature, the most beautiful, secretive, illusive and enigmatic of big cats. It was the leopard that I most wanted to see when I first came to Africa but poaching in the 1960s and 1970s made that impossible. Those leopards that had survived knew well to keep hidden. But in time I came to know a female I named Chui meaning leopard in Swahili and when she gave birth in early 1983 to two male cubs that I named Dark and Light I hurry home to Kenya after surgery for a ruptured disk in my lower back. Finally I was able to gather the photographs of a mother leopard and her cubs to illustrate Chui's story - a story that had taken six years to complete. That is how hard it was to find a leopard back then let alone photograph one. 

Unravelling the secret life of the leopards—Chui and her mother, the ghostlike Mara Buffalo Female, and their cubs—was one of the most satisfying times of my life. It enabled me to immerse myself in their world and established my credentials as an author in my own right.People often ask how I came to be a television presenter. It wasn't to become famous. It was because I was doing something that people found interesting; I was passionate about wildlife and spent every minute I could in the company of the lions, leopards and cheetahs that I came to know as individuals, each with their own character. I read everything I could about animal behaviour, followed the work of the scientists and contributed my own findings to their work wherever possible. Television sought me out because—in the simplest terms—I knew what I was talking about and could communicate easily with the general public. There is nothing like passion and enthusiasm allied to knowledge. I was soon to learn that filming wildlife had its dark side. My experiences working with the long running American TV show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom opened my eyes to the tendency of some publishers and film makers to portray a false impression of untamed wilderness, and how the use of captive animals and set-up scenes were once the industry standard.

This podcast series is a continuing effort to educate and inspire our audience. If you'd like to learn more about us, or to check out our latest collection of educational ebooks, please visit our website: www.bigcatpeople.com