MEET THE LEOPARDS OF YOUTUBE

WILDEARTH HAS MADE LIVESTREAMING STARS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S BIG CATS

- STORY: MICHAEL HARMON / NYT

It was just after sunrise, and we were racing to meet a local celebrity we had been doggedly tracking all morning.

She'd been spotted grabbing a drink nearby, so we made a beeline to the nearest watering hole, arriving just in time to watch her gracefully slink away and disappear — delighting, then deflating, her thousands of fans expectantly watching via livestream.

We had found Tlalamba, the Queen of Djuma, a female leopard whose physical territory amounts to a patch of bushveld near South Africa’s Kruger National Park but whose digital dominion spans the globe.

That's thanks to WildEarth, a TV channel that for 17 years has broadcast live safari drives from Djuma Game Reserve and other wilderness areas across South Africa. Those virtual safaris have turned Tlalamba and the leopards of Djuma into internet royalty, with five-figure Facebook follower counts and millions of views on YouTube, and fans increasingly willing to fly thousands of kilometres (and spend as many dollars) for the chance to have an audience with them.

During each safari livestream, a command centre continuously filters and relays viewers’ questions to the presenters to answer in real time, creating an interactive experience.

Among WildEarth fans, Djuma's resident lion coalitions and hyena clans also have scores of devoted followers. But the leopard — solitary, mysterious and mesmerising — is inevitably the star of the show.