Stalking Leopards
June 2002
On South Africa's Mala Mala Game Reserve, predator and prey maintain an uneasy balance. This remarkable film documents one young male leopard's fight for survival and his place in the community hierarchy. Seventy kilos of strength, the four-year old male leopard, Tjololo, stalks his meals with liquid smooth movements but keeping his catch from the animals that share his domain will require tough lessons and numerous heated confrontations. Hyenas approach as he rushes to free a freshly killed carcass, and Tjololo soon learns that success can be a matter of inches. Stalking Leopards is an intimate chronicle of Tjololo's journey into adulthood: claiming territory, fighting old rivals, mating and killing. For Tjololo, amidst Africa's wild cast of lions, water buffalo, hyenas, elephants and impalas - the only way to walk is proudly and alone.
