Territory - Part 2: Leopard

In December, I visited St Lucia. A town about 240 km north of Durban. It is sandwiched between sea and lagoon and it is beautiful. A large nature reserve. That nature also just comes into the town. I saw a warthog grazing on a lawn in front of a house. And there are signs everywhere warning you about hippos. They walk in at night to have a taste of that tender grass. So it's better to move around by car after dark.

And monkeys, of course! You can see them jumping from branch to branch in the trees, searching rubbish bins, shouting at each other. In short, nothing they don't do back home in Durban either. But one thing was different.

On Sunday morning I am having breakfast served on a covered terrace. I sat at a small table between the garden and the breakfast buffet. The other guests had left early. A large troop of monkeys was roaming the neighbourhood, several of them in the garden of this lodge. But, how extraordinary, none made any attempt to take anything from the buffet. What was going on here?

The owner pointed me to the plush animal set up on a small table a few metres from the buffet. A small, cute leopard soft toy. My eyes shot from the soft toy to the monkeys in the garden. Could it really be true? Could this be the solution to the monkey nuisance on my balcony at home (see Territory 1)? Are monkeys instinctively afraid of leopards or is it learnt behaviour? Would monkeys in a big city be afraid of a leopard too?

Some interesting research questions!