By Dereck Joubert Photographs by Beverly Joubert

Teaching a spirited cub to survive in the wilds of Botswana takes all the skill and patience a mother leopard can muster. Here's a rare look at how this solitary species raises its young

母豹要教導一隻精神旺盛的幼獸，生存於波塔斯瓦納的原野中，是需要聚其所有的技巧與耐心的。以下是一篇罕見的非群居性種族，如何養育他們的下一代。

She was eight days old when we spotted her. Her eyes were still milky gray, and she wobbled slightly. Emerging into the sunlight from her den, she seemed curious and bold, taking no notice of screeching squirrels. Her mother had lost five previous cubs to hyenas, baboons, and other predators. What would happen to this one?

當我們發現她的時候只有八天大。眼睛呈現出牛奶灰的顏色，走起路來還搖搖晃晃地。然而當她背著陽光，輕輕地從她巢穴中現身時，看起來既好奇又是大膽，一點都沒注意到身旁發出刺耳尖叫聲的松鼠。其實，母豹先前已曾失去五隻幼獸，有的是被鬣狗，有的是被狒狒或其他的掠食者奪取生命。那麼這隻的命運又將如何？

Unlike lions or cheetahs, leopards are secretive, solitary cats. Without a family to depend on, they hunt alone, slinking through the shadows, surviving on stealth and intelligence. Finding any leopard is difficult, so when we discovered this mother and cub in the thick groves of ebony and acacia trees at Mombo, an area in Botswana's Okavango Delta, we decided to follow the little one as she grew up.

花豹不像獅子或印度豹，是屬於較神秘而隱居的大貓。因此沒有家庭可以依賴，他們只能獨自狩獵，潛行陰暗處，靠著的是鬼祟以及智取才能生存下來。其他想要發現花豹已是很困難的，所以當我們在Botswana's Okavango 一處三角洲叫漫波的烏紫木及洋槐木下，發現一對花豹母女，我們當下決定要跟蹤記錄這隻小花豹的成長情形。

From her first days, Legadema, as we came to call her ("light from the sky" in the Setswana language), was under constant threat. Whether it was a troop of baboons that tried to drag both mother and daughter out of their den, or the lurking hyenas, death was never far away. Lions, a significant threat to young leopards, thrive in this part of the Moremi Game Reserve. But none of this kept Legadema from exploring the forest on her own when her mother left her alone for days at a time to bring back meat. Wherever Legadema went, vervet monkeys with darting eyes spotted her a mile off, and squirrels set up alarm calls. In time, these incidents only made her better at concealment and stealth.

拉加黛瑪 ( 依塞茲瓦語，那是指 ” 天空之光 ”，因此就用來命名這隻小花豹 ) 的初幾天，生命就已幾度遭遇威脅。不管是來自一群狒狒想要從他們的巢穴中拖出母女，還是遭到鬣狗的埋伏等，死亡從不是一件太遠的事。獅子的在附近地區的興盛，已嚴重威脅到了這對花豹的生存。但是即使是這樣，也不能阻止小花豹，在母豹離去幾天的獨留中，而不獨逛森林，照樣帶回捕穫的獵物。事實上，只要拉加黛瑪一出動，一里外的長尾黑顎猴，緊張就會突出眼睛，而松鼠就已警鈴大作。就是這些小動作，練就這隻小花豹，更好的躲藏，以及偷襲之術吧。

Her mother, a patient teacher, instructed Legadema in the skills she would need to survive as a predator: how to pin down prey and where to clamp on their throats with her jaws to suffocate them. Only after mastering these and many other lessons would she grow into the solitary hunter that all leopards must one day become.

她的母親是隻有耐心的花豹，教導她成為一隻懂得生存，而技術卓越的掠奪者；要等候在那處撂下獵物以及在喉頭何處扣住使之窒息等。如此的訓練也只等精熟之後，終有一天，小豹也要走上成豹孤獨之旅了。
Legadema's story continues in captivating images in our Photo Gallery .

拉加黛瑪的故事照片可在此連結上觀賞之。

P.S

此頁首照片是拉加黛瑪，因狩獵的本能，咬死了猴子的母親，卻發現她留下剛出生不久的小嬰兒猴仔，於是就當起小媽媽，照顧起她的小獵物來了，但幾個小時後，小猴仔還是死了。拉加黛瑪居然轉身就跑回去，吃起小猴子的媽媽了，這就是動物的適者生存世界。 

本文中文版由 lilimarleen 翻譯 若有不順暢處請原諒