The Way of the Leopard

The Way of the Leopard encapsulates the intensely intimate relationship that the author shared with leopard cubs Little Boy and Little Girl during the year she spent filming them and researching their behavior.

The book also sheds light on the mystical yet profound means through which these beautiful creatures communicate - providing those 'hints and guesses' as to their nature, which always seems to hover just beyond the real of human understanding.

The way of the leopard has its origins in the life of a leopard that lived at Londolozi Game Reserve some years ago. It was the mother leopard who opened the way for leopard at Londolozi and who inspired this moving and often humorous account about raising two leopard cubs - Little Girl and Little Boy - at Londolozi and finally setting them free in the Luangwa National Park in Zambia. The way of the leopard is more than a wildlife book. It is, in the author’s words, an account of “what it means to come into the animal presence”. As such it is a very personal account of the fragile relationship and interaction between humans and leopards. It is in essence the story of the “coming of age” of Little Boy and Little Girl, of what it means to be a leopard. Through this touching personal account, however, the reader is given an insightful view into the life, behavior and characteristics of leopards. The book contains a 32-page full color section of photographs taken by Gillian and the team during their stay with the two leopard cubs.

This book is about the reconciliation and the restoration of right relations between man and Nature.