Every weekend, I'm going to post new wildlife photos from our recent South African holiday. The vast majority will come from the four-day safari we went on, and what better way to start this series than with shots of an animal named Safari. She's a leopard, and undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip. We crossed her path twice and on both, she was totally unperturbed by our presence. On our second encounter, she even posed for pictures, sitting gracefully atop a termite mound bathed in a golden sunset.
If you're wondering why this leopard in particular is so recognisable, here's the answer. Safari is half-blind. Midway through her long life, she sustained a severe injury to her right eye that left it swollen, bloodshot and presumably sightless. You might think that for an ambush predator, the loss of depth perception would be a fatal impediment to hunting. But ...