Kikilezi FEMALE

Archives: 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Devon Myers

December 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                         * 6 YEARS 2 MONTH

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(8 sightings)

The Kikilezi female, like the Jakkalsdraai female, had a strange month with her not being seen as much as she normally is. One memorable sighting of her was when she encountered her son in her territory. The male cub is now fully independent and although will still be recognized by his mother will not be tolerated. The female stumbled upon her son one afternoon and chased him around until he finally got the message and slunk off with his tail between his legs looking very disapprovingly at his mother. She will now be looking to mate again and have her second litter so there are exciting times ahead for this female leopard.

Son of the Kikilezi female: (1 year 11 months)

Son of the Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Wesley Neumann

This young male was seen 11 times during the month, one of the most frequently seen leopards. Unfortunately he is still nervous of vehicles and the sightings never lasted long. It’s good to see that he is hanging around and hopefully in the future he will relax down and become a dominant male here on MalaMala. On one occasion he ran in to his mother and they had a stand off where she finally lost her patience and chased him off. He finally got the message and moved off.

---

November 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                         * 6 YEARS 1 MONTH
1 MALE CUB                                   * 1 YEAR 10 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(5 sightings of female alone, 2 sightings of mother with her cub, 12 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Bruce Hedges

The Kikilezi female had a relatively uneventful month, with her being seen on just five occasions on her own and twice with her cub. The most exciting sighting involved the female and her cub being in close association to a bushbuck carcass. The carcass was stolen from the cub by a number of hyenas during the evening, and on leaving the area, rangers did not expect to see much in the line of leftovers the following morning. However, following up in the region led to the discovery of the female feeding off the carcass in an Apple leaf tree, close to New Extension. Although the female had evidently reclaimed the carcass, precious little remained. Although mother and son were seen to feed from the carcass, each leopard behaved as if the other did not exist - totally ignoring each other.

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Andrew Batchelor

Interestingly, from merely looking at the sightings records, the cub of the Kikilezi female was seen on twelve occasions on his own, and thus would appear to have had a more successful month. Unfortunately though, he continues to show fear towards vehicles, with sightings of the cub usually terminating shortly after his discovery as he dashes towards the apparent safety associated with dense vegetation. Encouragingly though, when viewed in association with his mother, he is far more tolerant of vehicles. Predictably, sightings of the two leopards together will not continue for very long, as the young male nears the start of his nomadic existence.

---

October 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                        * 6 YEARS
1 MALE CUB                                   * 1 YEAR 9 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(7 sightings of female alone, 1 sightings of mother with her cub, 6 of cub without mother)

The Kikilezi female was found many times around the Main Camp and northwards along the Sand River. At the start of the month she was found with fresh wounds on her rear. Although only flesh wounds she had clearly been in a fight with another leopard and was badly cut. She recovered from the injuries and was seen to flirt with the Manyelethi male looking to have her second litter. She was then found close to the camp with a bush buck kill in a tree. When rangers returned in the afternoon, they discovered that she had also killed a sub adult impala, however this carcass was literally skin and bone, indicating that she had in fact been feeding from it over a couple of days.

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

Her cub had a fairly successful month and was seen on several kills he had made. He had an interaction with the Manyelethi male who stole one of those kills and chased the young male further up the tree. He still is nervous around vehicles and although now independent remains hidden when viewed and often runs off. This behaviour cannot be explained but hopefully in the future he will calm down to become territorial on MalaMala.

---

September 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                       * 5 YEARS 11 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB                                   * 1 YEAR 8 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(12 sightings of female alone, 2 sightings of mother with her cub, 6 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Bruce Hedges

The Kikilezi female provided some great viewing over this report period, she has been seen in a number of different places within her territory and is showing good dominance. Most of the sightings have been around the old airstrip. The female leopard made a good start to the month with killing a male bushbuck in the Sand River just south of the causeway and was seen feeding on the carcass for the morning. She was seen a number of times all over her territory mainly scent marking and roaring.

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Bruce Hedges

Late into the evening the female leopard was found hunting impala and managed to kill an adult male but the male impala was not going to die without a fight. The small female leopard took about twenty minutes to kill the impala and started to feed on the impala while the animal was still alive. This leopard has been in good condition for the whole report period and is spending less and less time with her cub as she slowly pushes him away. Her cub has been spending most of his time around the new fire break south of Fred’s Tree, this is the most eastern part of his mother’s territory.

---

August 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                        * 5 YEARS 10 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB                                  * 1 YEAR 7 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(6 sightings of female alone, 3 sightings of mother with her cub, 2 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

The Kikilezi female had a good start to the report period, with her being viewed feeding off a freshly killed impala in the northern parts of her territory. She was also seen to share a kill with her cub on Valley Road, close to Campbell Koppies in the middle part of the report period. Unfortunately, the leopards were only found once the carcass had almost been depleted, and they were thus only viewed in the area for a couple of hours. Towards the end of the report period, the female was seen to mate with the Manyelethi male, as well as show very serious aggression towards her cub. Perhaps it is time for this popular leopard amongst the rangers of Mala Mala to have her second litter.

Cub of the Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger bruce Hedges

---

July 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE                           * 5 YEARS 9 MONTHS
1 CUB 1 YEAR                                  * 6 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(6 sightings of female alone, 1 sightings of mother with her cub, 3 of cub without mother)

The Kikilezi female was only seen once during the early part of the report period close to the MalaMala Main Camp. However, she was found a little later during the report period, with an adult male impala kill, to the east of Campbell Koppies. This ensured a quality stable sighting of this female for the entire day, with her cub joining his mother and feeding from the carcass in a large knob thorn tree. Towards evening, the two leopards provided some excellent viewing, with the cub dropping the carcass to a patient hyena, only to see the female launching an attack on the hyena in which she managed to secure a good section of the carcass. The female then continued on the trail of the hyena, and found a further section of the carcass, and likewise managed to secure it. This type of behaviour is not often observed with female leopards, perhaps it is as a result of her being in her prime, with a huge confidence and attitude of success. The leopards were then viewed for a number of consecutive days around the Maurice’s pan, West Street region. This type of behaviour is often associated with the leopards being drawn to the area by a kill, however no carcasses were found. The female was noted to move large distances, scent marking frequently, being found in the northern reaches of Marthly and as far east as the Matshapiri dam road, Ostrich Koppies road junction in Eyrefield. One particularly interesting sighting of the female was around the Princess Alice pans, where the female was seen to actively pursue the Manyelethi male leopard. Unfortunately no mating was witnessed, but her disposition was that of a female leopard in estrus.

---

June 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE             * 5 YEARS 8 MONTHS
1 CUB                                  * 1 YEAR 5 MONTHS

WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
Location: (8 sightings of female alone, 3 sightings of them with her cub, 2 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

The Kikilezi female continues to provide much of our excellent game viewing close to Mala Mala camp. Although her young male cub continues to be slightly nervous of the vehicles, there have been some excellent sightings of the 2 of them. Interestingly when the Kikilezi female killed a female bushbuck in the Sand River close to Mala Mala, she was observed to feed off it alone. There was no indication that she wanted to go and fetch the cub. The cub was found, by himself, a few days later not to far north of where the kill was located. This behaviour adds to idea that these two leopards will soon separate. Adding fuel to this is the increased number of sightings of the female alone. She does still allow the cub to feed with her if he is in attendance or finds a kill she has made.

Cub of the Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

This was observed later on in the report period when the two of them were found feeding on the remains of a young kudu kill in the northern section of Marthly. There was surprisingly little aggression between the two leopards. One would expect the Kikilezi female to begin to show some aggression towards the youngster, as he gets older.

---

May 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE               * 5 YEARS 7 MONTHS
1 CUB                                       * 1 YEAR 4 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(3 sightings of female alone, 2 sightings of them with her cub, 1 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi female & cub - Photograph by ranger Steven Herb

Interestingly the Kikilezi female was not sighted as frequently during the report period as has been consistently the case in the pas few report periods. None the less, she provided some fine viewing. Excellent interaction between both leopards and several hyena was witnessed in front of the Main Camp, and later on in the report period she was seen to mate with the Manyelethi male. Interestingly rangers noticed that the female began to show signs of readiness to mate; however the male was relatively hostile towards her. Eventually the male did mate with her, and this continued relatively frequently into the night. This is a clear sign of the female’s readiness to leave her current cub and breed again. This behavior will mean that the cub of the Kikilezi, who is now clearly bigger than his mother, will be soon moving off to become a nomad.

Kikilezi female - Photograph by ranger Steven Herb

---

April 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE               * 5 YEARS 6 MONTHS
1 CUB                                       * 1 YEAR 3 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(9 sightings of female alone, 9 sightings of them with her cub, 0 of cub without mother)

Having her territory near to camp, this successful female leopard has been seen many times during April. Because the areas near camp are thoroughly worked, if she happens to be walking on any of the nearby roads she is generally seen.

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Wade Goss

Her cub has also been seen many times but never alone. He is looking healthy and she seems to be feeding him well. Unfortunately he has not picked up his mothers relaxed nature and tends to shy away from vehicles even after over a year of seeing vehicles. With constant exposure to vehicles we hope that he will settle down, but for the time being we only allow a couple of vehicles to view him at a time.

During the middle of the month, the Kikilezi female and her cub gave us some excellent viewing in Piccadilly Pans were she had killed a large male impala, which took her and her cub three days to consume. Later in the month, the Manyelethi male stole one of her kills, so she promptly killed another, which her greedy cub stole. She remained in the area for a number of days before leaving.

Towards the end of the report, she was not seen for a number of days, possibly with a kill in or around the Sand River.

---

March 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE               * 5 YEARS 5 MONTHS
1 CUB                                       * 1 YEAR 2 MONTHS

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(8 sightings of female alone, 2 sightings of them with her cub, 4 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female & Cub - Photographed by ranger Bruce Hedges

The Kikilezi Female is still the most frequently viewed leopard in the northern parts of MalaMala. She was first seen on the second day of the report period in the southwestern parts of the Mlowathi River. This is thought to be the old territory of her elder sister the Campbell Koppies female, whom relinquished this part to her two daughters as they became independent, however been the dominant female in the area, the Kikilezi Female seems to have a strong hold. The Kikilezi Female has been seen many times over this month to be feeding on various kills and looks to be in good shape for the future. Her cub is starting to grow in size and we believe weighs almost as much as her. The cub has relaxed in the presence of vehicles, and seems to be in good stead for the future.

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Wade Goss

We have also noticed the Kikilezi Female to be moving around some way south of her usual territory in the Kikilezi Hash region. Mid way through the month she was witnessed to have a territorial dispute with her mother, the Ngoboswan Female. The encounter ended with neither of these leopards been injured. What will the future hold?

Cub of the Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

---

February 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE               *5 YEARS 4 MONTHS
1 CUB                                       *1 YEAR 1 MONTH

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(6 sightings of female alone, 4 sightings of them with her cub, 0 of cub without mother)

Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Wade Goss

The ever-present Kikilezi female leopard was found on ten separate occasions during the report period, hence being the most frequently viewed female on the property. The female is very tolerant of her cub, and was again viewed mostly close to the Mala Mala main camp.

Cub of the Kikilezi Female - Photographed by ranger Anthony Harding

The female had an interaction with a civet close to wildebeest crossing. The interaction was brief, and although the animals were in a thick reed bed, audio of a chase and confrontation was evident. Rangers believed that the civet had put its scent glands to good use and deterred the female.

---

January 2007

Kikilezi FEMALE               *5 YEARS 3 MONTHS
1 CUB                                       * 1 YEAR

Location: WESTERN MALA MALA, MARTHLY
(19 sightings of female, 17of them with her cub, 2 of cub without mother)

The Kikilezi female and cub were seen close to the start of the report period. They were spotted on the eastern bank of the Sand River very close to Mala Mala Main Camp. These two leopards were seen the very next day not to far east of the previous position with the Manyelethi male, which believes the cub to be his offspring, and was therefore very tolerable of the young leopard and the mother.

Kikilezi Female & Cub - Photographed by ranger Bruce Hedges

A week later these two leopards were found again feeding on an impala kill on the old airstrip close to camp. The cub continues to be nervous of vehicles.