The Leopard's Tale

by Jonathan Scott

First published in 1985, this book is based on the observations of eleven years of leopard-watching in Kenya's Masai Mara Game Reserve. Scott's account of mother leopard, a solitary provider and protector of her offspring as they learn to fend for themselves is complemented by photographs. Jonathan Scott won the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award in 1987 and has also written "The Marsh Lions" in collaboration with Brian Jackman. He is based in the Masai Mara and acts as field advisor for a number of TV wildlife films.

Genres: Africa, Nature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

For the history professor, see Jonathan^^Scott.

Reviews

[Iset · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful intimate portrait into a year in the life of leopards in the Masai Mara. A must for any fan of Big Cat Diary.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extremely detailed account of the day to day activities of a leopardess and her two male cubs from when they were a few weeks old to their independence. This is one of the famous TV presenter's earliest written works, published almost three decades ago. If a season of the Big Cat Diary could be translated into written form instead of film, this would be it, as Scott uses words to describe the behavior of his subjects down to the smallest minutiae. Though tremendous insight is gained into the lives of these most secretive of animals, after a few chapters I could not help but feel it became repetitive as the confrontations with baboons and hyena and the play fights between the cubs get described over and over, trying the patience of even a leopard obsessed reader like myself!

The author must also hold the record of spending the longest period of time recording the behavior of leopards in one location - Masai Mara of Kenya, such that the generations of these enigmatic cats became familiar to him as individual personalities. The epilogues provide an update of the happenings at the Mara viz a viz leopards, albeit in much condensed form, since those early days of observations during the 1980s, up through the climatic years of the Big Cat Diary series that made him a famous TV personality. I felt the book could have really used a family tree diagram that visualizes the connections between the various cast of this wild drama.

The author is also a very talented sketch artist on top of being a good writer and presenter, and the book contains many of his beautiful hand drawn illustrations of leopards and other denizens of East Africa.

[Gunjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book for anyone who is into big cats and wild life in general. A lovely tale of Chui and her cubs, their mannerisms, their reactions to danger, survival and to men.
The way it is written, I could almost visualise their every move, poignant at parts, you feel moved by it and are driven to protect this beautiful Earth from the ravages of mankind

[Richa Kedia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book on leopards and the nuances of filming in the wild. The author beautifully describes the African landscape, bringing the scene to life. Must read for a wildlife lover.

[Mark Mcdaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic wildlife / travel book!

If you love leopards or the show Big Cat Diaries this is the book for you! The book is well written and informative, with good advice on photographic equipment to use when trying to photograph these elusive cats!

[DC · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not very taken with this book so far - about 1/3 of the way in. It's a lot more dull than I expected - I know not everyone can write as well as Jane Goodall, but still. The tone of it is pretty... strange for late 20th C. No discussion of colonial impacts thus far, and an odd emphasis on some details like a tale about a tourist who made a poor decision and how Scott decided to include the person was "a middle aged woman." The following story about a group of folks who arguably made an ever poorer set of decisions and there are no demographic descriptors. Also more emphasis on recklessness by tour guides than on what might be driving them (the tourists themselves and promise of payment) - this is mentioned, but in the end it comes back to the drivers (and not the pressures of a post-colonial, tourism driven economy). I'll keep going for a bit before I give up.

Well, I mostly finished this book - I admit I skimmed the last 20-30 pages because it was just so boring. Leopards are not boring, but this book defintiely is.
I was also rather put off by the tone of the book and the narrative that there is This One White Dude doing All The Things All By Himself - when clearly he's not. What about all the professional (Kenyan) trackers who help him find the leopards? What about all the bits where he writes something like "little did I know she was only a little ways off from my jeep." Like... how did you end up knowing that, my man?

Also, if you were enticed by the cover's promise that it "features Half-Tail and Zawadi," don't hold your breath. This was not an inducement to me, being unfamiliar with Big Cat Country, but those two cats barely get a look in for the entire book, and are introduced half-way through the first epilogue. Because, yep... there are two epilogues. Please note: even Tolstoy can't pull off double epilogues. Also, Scott would have benefitted from taking a course in evolutionary biology, or at least getting an editor who had, so that we would not have to be subjected to sentences like "evolution ensures the survival of the species." That is not how evoution works.