Never in a million years did I think I’d see my Bucky disappear into the African bush in the jaws of a wild leopard.

I should back up. My husband, Jack, and I lead Photo Expeditions and Photo Safaris all over the world, from Antarctica to the high Arctic, so we spend a good deal of time on long flights. My Bucky has been my best travel buddy (other than Jack, of course), keeping me comfortable flying to many remote locations. As a photographer, my Bucky is really valuable to me in another way, especially in Africa where we are shooting from safari vehicles. Inside its “BuckyBag” carrying sack, I use it as a bean bag to support my camera and lenses for long telephoto shots. I always recommend it to safari travelers.

Last month we were leading a Photo Safari in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve bordering Kruger National Park in South Africa. Leopards are notoriously reclusive animals, but this area is renowned as the best place to see and photograph them, so we designed our itinerary’s grand finale to be here. We spend most of our days in Africa on game drives in open safari vehicles, observing wildlife, and the morning of August 20th was no different. We headed out early and got lucky, finding a very handsome 2 year old male leopard on the move, looking for a suitable breakfast. There were impala and wildebeest nearby, so we were patiently watching to see what would happen next.

The leopard settled down on top of a termite mound about 20 yards away from us, scanning for prey, and posing nicely. Camera shutters clicked away. I was using my Bucky as a bean bag, perched on the metal rail, but as I turned away to change cameras, it dropped to the ground directly below me with a buckwheat-crunching thud. The leopard’s head immediately snapped around to see what had moved on the ground, his attention now fully consumed. Our guide quietly but emphatically said to us, “don’t move!” The leopard stood up, stretched as is typical before a hunt, and began to walk looking the other way. But then his focus turned back our way and he began stalking my Bucky. He walked right up to the vehicle, paused for half a second to give me a serious eye-to-eye glare, as if to say, “don’t even think about moving.” I was frozen in my seat, and my look said to him in reply, “Okay, it’s all yours.” In a split second his claws snatched away my Bucky and it was in his jaws, and heading off into the bush. I sat there, part laughing, part stunned, saying in a small voice to myself, “bye-bye Bucky…”

We were able to follow this beautiful cat as he moved through the brush and came out to a clearing on the other side. At this point he began playing with his catch, shaking it wildly, just like a house cat with a toy. Except this cat had really big, sharp teeth. We watched for a while longer, thinking that maybe he would abandon his fabric and buckwheat hull kill, but no, he continued on further into the bush with his prize.

It was time for us to move on, but I asked our driver guide to let the other drivers in the area know that I would give a reward if any of them found my Bucky, even if it was only the tattered remains. That evening at dinner, our guide came to me with a surprise in hand, my Bucky! What was really amazing was that it was essentially intact despite spending a few hours in the jaws of a leopard. We were all quite impressed with how well made Bucky was to have survived this very wild experience.

I love my Bucky, now even more than ever before, leopard teeth holes and all.

Rikki Swenson

ExpeditionGallery.com

Rikki & Jack Swenson lead Photo Expeditions and Photo Safaris for Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic, helping others to capture great images in the world’s wildest places.

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These photos were shot in the Londolozi area of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, Kruger National Park, South Africa.