The euphoria over the more frequent and spectacular leopard sightings continues. This is just one of the many highlights that the wonderful wildlife offered us during our game drives in August. Welcome to our monthly update from the bush.

Last month we reported a steady increase in sightings of leopards, which are the most challenging Big 5 animals to find. The trend continues: In August we found this cat in 27% of all our game drives, which is a new record. Now the trees have barely green leaves left, and so you can make wonderful pictures of leopards climbing in the dry branches.

And there was also this little story: our scottish ranger Alasdair took his free time for a little walk while his guests were on a bushwalk. He followed lion tracks until, by chance, he walked into the male leopard we call "Munye". This impressive lad was lying on the ground, in the shade of a tree, eating an impala. Thank goodness Munye prefers local food to Scottish meat!

Interesting that we also saw white rhinos more often than ever. The quota was 71% per game drive. At the top of our statistics, as always, is the elephant (89%). Slightly below average, but still high, are lion (45%) and buffalo (44%). Our giraffe friends were not disappointed. We saw these long-necked mammals in two-thirds of all safaris.

A little more luck was needed this time to find cheetahs. We saw them once at a zebra kill, another time at a steenbok kill. Generally, we saw the smaller cats a little less than usual, but we remember the observations of genet or wildcat in the dark.