Leopards of Sabi Sands

[Tonpa]

Savanna June Update
https://savannalodge.com/wildlife-blog-june-2021/


We also have some youngsters in the leopard population! Tlangisa has a new litter and, although we have not seen her and her cubs much in the past few months, it seems that she is doing exceptionally well. She is her usual calm self, and it reflects in the way that the two young cubs are already extremely relaxed around the vehicles.

Khokhovela has also been pretty scarce lately, but she was recently seen mating with Ravenscourt, so hopefully there may soon be some more cubs running around.

Ravenscourt has been maintaining his dominance well in the west and seems to have picked up a bit with his patrols to the south, presumably in response to Thamba, who is putting pressure on him from the south. He still, however, spends most of his time along the river, where the conditions are most suited to him.

He has also been getting some pressure from Euphorbia in the north, and we recently had a sighting of the two of them lying about 30 metres apart, growling at each other. What was interesting was that it was on the southern side of the river, i.e. more in Ravenscourt’s territory than Euphorbia’s and that Euphorbia did not seem to be backing down, but was holding his own.

As mentioned before, Thamba is growing in size and is expanding his territory. He is definitely becoming much more confident and has made the south his own. It has been really good having a regular, relaxed and dominant male close to Savanna, and we see and hear him regularly.

Nyelethi is still the dominant male to the east of Ravenscourt, and that boundary seems to have been settled some time ago. He is, however, getting on at 12 years old, and will be coming more and more under pressure from younger leopards. At this point, it is not clear where that pressure is going to come from, but for now he seems safe.

One possibility is Hlambela, who is the son of Boulders, and is now three years old. Nyelethi will probably hold on for another year or two, which will mean that Hlambela will be four or five, which is about the time that he will be looking for a territory of his own.

Another young male in the area is Scotia and Nyelethi’s son (I think he's called Kangela now). At just over two, he still has the ‘teenage’ gene in him and we recently had the privilege of watching him stalk and pounce at a rodent next to the road. It is always impressive to see the patience, opportunism and agility of these cats! Reply