December 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 10 YEARS 2 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS 5 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(1 sightings of female alone, 3 sighting of female with cub, 1 sighting of cub alone)
The Matshipiri female continues to be plagued by her son. He is now nearly a year past his independence date and there is still no sign that he is attempting to become independent. The female still brings her large son back to kills and pampers him while he lounges around getting free meals. The Matshipiri female needs to kick him out and force him into independence, something she seems hesitant to do. The son is relaxing down very nicely when with his mom but when he is found on his own still remains nervous.
November 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 10 YEARS 1 MONTH
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS 4 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(4 sightings of female alone, 4 sightings of female with cub, 0 sightings of cub alone)
The leopard that just refuses to become independent, this seems to be attitude of this females son. At over two years of age he is still extremely reliant on his mother even though she was seen mating with the Emsagwen male again this month. The two were found on a kill this month. which was later claimed by the Emsagwen male. Before the Emsagwen male had found the kill it was interesting to note that the young male was showing aggression towards his mother whenever she came to close to the carcass. In the coming weeks this sort of behaviour will lead to female discontinuing to call him whenever she makes a kill. An extremely exciting sighting of this pair this month was when the female caught a cane rat during a heavy shower of rain.
October 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 10 YEARS
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS 3 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(4 sightings of female alone, 4 sightings of female with cub, 1 sightings of cub alone)
The pair continues to live together with the female still providing for her now fully developed son. The son still continues to be nervous when viewed on his own but with his mother around is almost always relaxed. One of the sightings of the month came when these two were found lying in a tree watching a hyaena feed of their impala kill. The hyaena picked up the remains of the carcass and dragged it off, both leopards followed and when the hyaena put the kill down to rest the young male gathered his courage and charged the hyaena. Catching the scavenger off guard the male managed to retrieve what was left of the impala and immediately treed it. When will she finally kick him out? Well let hope soon as she should be looking to mate and give birth to another litter of cubs.
September 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 11 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS 2 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(3 sightings of female alone, 4 sightings of female with cub, 2 sightings of cub alone)
This female has kept her cub/son for far too long now and is still continuing to provide for him. She still leads him back to kills and comes to fetch him when she is unsuccessful at making a kill. They make an odd pair with the two year old male extremely big for his age and the female smaller than average for hers, but yet he whines and complains when she doesn’t show up with food. It will interesting to watch this pair and see how much longer this behaviour goes on, the longer it takes it for him to become independent the worse off he will be as his reliance on mom to provide food for him means he hasn’t had to hunt yet, which means that not only will he struggle as a young independent male fighting to become dominant but also to simply feed himself.
August 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 10 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS 1 MONTH
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(0 sightings of female alone, 4 sightings of female with cub, 6 sightings of cub alone)
For the first time in many months the Son of the Matshipiri female was seen more than his mother. We thought this was due to the fact that she might be pregnant but she has not conceived and will have to look to mate again and hopefully have better luck the next time around. Although this young and large male has been seen on a number of occasions he has not relaxed down very much with regards to vehicles. He is relaxed when vehicles are viewing from a distance but when he is without his mother he does not like vehicles approaching him. The perfect example was towards the end of the month when he was found at Matshipiri dam and he would only allow vehicles to view him from across the river, but in the afternoon when his mother arrived he was walking past the vehicles within arm’s reach. Hopefully his mother will continue to have this calming effect and he will relax down even when alone. The most interesting sighting was when the Matshipiri female brought her son to a gully system where she had wounded a baby duiker and then let him play with it while alive to try and teach him how to kill the antelope. This is strange as a young male of his age should already know this, but he seems to be a slow learner and very dependent on his mother, as she had to kill it for him in the end before he ate it. She also led him to two other kills this month and seems happy to still provide for him.
July 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 9 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 2 YEARS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(1 sightings of female alone, 1 sighting of female with cub, 2 sightings of cub alone)
Both of these leopards have not been seen much this month at all, the female seems to be pushing her son away and he is holding on for dear life. She still appears to be pregnant but not as far along as we had estimated and he continues to only be completely relaxed when his mother is around, however he is becoming far more relaxed with vehicles able to watch him for a long time without his mother around. However much like last year we hope that the Emsagwen waterhole, will draw them closer as the only source of water for them in their territory, and thus we will be able to see them far more often and by that stage maybe even another young Matshipiri leopard?
June 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 8 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 23 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(3 sightings of female alone, 1 sighting of female with cub, 4 sightings of cub alone)
This female is starting to push he son away, forcing him to fend for himself. Although she called and led him to an impala kill this month, that was the only sighting of the two together this month. The female was seen on her own a handful of times and the first indications of her being pregnant are showing, it should not be long now if she did conceive when we saw her mating with the Emsagwen male, and then she will not tolerate her son in the area. He has also been seen a few times this month; on one accession he killed a puff adder showing the array and diversity of leopards. However he is still very nervous by himself and it will take time for him to get comfortable being alone and settle. He also had a run in with the Daughter of the Ngoboswan female, which although they did not fight might of damaged his ego as he ran off at a rapid rate into the river away from this young and small female while she continued on as if not to worry about him being there at all.
May 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 7 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 22 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(0 sightings of female alone, 1 sightings of female with cub, 1 sightings of cub alone)
Seen only once at Ostrich Koppies the female is struggling to get rid of her shy sub adult. She looks to be heavily pregnant and her sub adult is way past the normal separation period but he continues to follow his mother and feed from kills she makes. It will be interesting to see what happens when she gives birth and let’s hope this time we see the cubs more when they are younger so they don’t end up as nervous as he has.
April 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 6 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 21 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(3 sightings of female alone, 3 sightings of female with cub, 5 sightings of cub alone)
A very good month of sightings for these two leopards, with a high amount of sightings as well as quality sightings. On one occasion the female was seen chasing a male cheetah, which fortunately got away and on another occasion she was seen dragging the carcass of a young warthog out of a burrow in the side of a termite mound. What is strange is still the amount of sightings where the young male is still with his mother. It is increasing in frequency the times he is seen by himself but on these occasions he is still rather nervous of the vehicle and takes a while to settle down. The times that he was seen by himself it was in the area of Pats Drift Koppies. It seems as though he is rather hesitant to disperse away from his mother and chooses to stay by her in her territory.
March 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 5 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 20 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(3 sightings of female alone, 0 sighting of female with cub, 4 sighting of cub alone)
This female leopard is still trying to chase off her son to force him into independence, thus we have not seen the two together this month at all added to this is the fact that the Matshipiri female was seen mating with the Emsagwen male which also indicates that she is ready for her next litter. We have only seen her a few times this month but the times she has been seen she is not yet showing signs of lactation. Her son on the other hand when seen has been very nervous and seems to be very scared without the reassurance of his mother, it will take time for him to establish himself and relax down in a area.
February 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 4 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 19 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(0 sightings of female alone, 2 sighting of female with cub, 1 sighting of cub alone)
During the two sightings we had of her she looked heavily pregnant and was milling around rocky outcrops, potential den sites we think. The interesting thing is though that she still had her male cub in tow. By the time she is ready to give birth to a new litter she should have gotten rid of the old litter, this is something she hasn’t yet been able to do. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future because if she gives birth her current cub could pose a threat to her new cubs as well as herself.
January 2010
MATSHIPIRI FEMALE 9 YEARS 3 MONTHS
1 MALE CUB 18 MONTHS
EASTERN MALA MALA, EASTERN EYREFIELD
(1 sightings of female alone, 1 sighting of female with cub, 6 sighting of cub alone)
She was not seen much this month but her cub made up for her. He was seen several times around Matshipiri dam and at Emsagwen waterhole. The young cub is fast reaching independence and this could be the reason we haven’t seen his mother more this month, she might be trying to force him out and so deserting him for long periods of time. She could also possibly have been mating which would also explain the disappearance of the Emsagwen male, but this is speculation. The young male remains nervous of vehicles and often moves into thick cover when found on his own, let’s hope this changes before he becomes independent.
