Tense leopard

In most game parks in Africa, safari drives must be finished and everyone needs to be back in the lodge or tented camp before dark. Rangers assume that anyone out in the dark is a poacher, and in most nature reserves and national parks there is a shoot-to-kill policy with poachers. On this night, we were late getting back and by coincidence found this leopard in a tree. We were only a few minutes from the lodge, but we stopped just long enough to put a spotlight on the cat and grab a shot. I love the body language – tense, alert, ready for anything. I used a 400mm focal length for this picture, and the camera settings were 1/400, f/5.6, and 3200 ISO.