Leopards of Sabi Sands

[Fredymrt]

From Savanna
Written on 22 November 2017.

Other than following the scent of the predators, hyena often locate kills by the alarm calls or distress calls made by the prey when a kill has taken place. It is therefore imperative that the kill is made as quickly and as quietly as possible. This was not the case when we actually located Ravenscourt in the act of killing a large warthog boar. Due to the size of the warthog, he could not risk asphyxiating the warthog (cutting off the air supply) because of the large tusks, but instead had to go for the chest cavity. Fortunately for Ravenscourt, there was obviously no hyena in hearing distance, as the distress calls from the warthog were loud and continued for some time. Although this is a vey distressing kill to witness, one needs to remember that it is literally a fight for survival and Ravenscourt himself could easily have been killed by the powerful warthog if he made a mistake. In the end, he succeeded and had a supply of meat for the next two days, so the reward was clearly worth the risk.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

But as always with Ravenscourt, it is not always about food! For a few days early in October, he was seen together with Xikavi, who is back in the mating game! With Mondzo now properly independent, she is mating again, and will hopefully succeed again, having successfully raised her first cub.

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Having lost her cub last month, Scotia is on her own again, and moving about a bit more. We have seen her with numerous kills, and she is often seen hoisting them into trees to avoid other predators.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Tlangisa’s two young daughters are really settling well into their respective territories. Basile seems to be developing or settling a little quicker than Khokovela and, having lost one litter already, was seen mating with Dewane again this month. She is maturing quickly and has also relaxed completely around the vehicles. When they were young, Basile was much more nervous than Khokovela, so her change suggests that she is much more confident in herself now.

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Khokovela, although seeming to develop more slowly than Basile, has been doing very well. Part of her slower development might be the result of older, more dominant females such as Xikavi being in close proximity to her. Basile seems to have taken over from the Dam 3 female, who disappeared some time ago, indicating she had no competition. It has been different for Khokovela, but she now too seems to be gaining in confidence.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Dewane is seen regularly on his territorial marches and is still in fantastic condition! Understandably, he is concentrating his movements around the river where habitat and food availability are much better at this time of the year.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

The youngsters have also been making their presence known this month. Mondzo is still sticking around in the area where he grew up, but is not seen together with his mother Xikavi much at all. He is now two and a half years old and moving around quite a bit, but interestingly has an unusually comfortable relationship with his father, Dewane. There seems to be very little aggression from Dewane’s side, and he is putting no obvious pressure on Mondzo to move yet. We shall see how long this lasts!

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Nweti (which means ‘Moon’) is Hlabankunzi’s young male, who has also been independent for some time now. He is slightly older than Mondzo, and at just under three, is also moving about more. He has ventured a little further from where he grew up, and has been seen in the west a couple of times. We had a great sighting of him when he had caught and killed a sub-adult impala ram. As young leopards often do, he ‘played’ with it for a while, practising how to drag it up into a tree, and then dropping it! This he repeated a couple of times, until a hyena arrived and he had to take things a little more seriously!

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*This image is copyright of its original author

We also had a brief visit from Hukumuri’s young male, who has just turned two.  He too had a kill hoisted in a marula tree, giving us great views of this young leopard we see so rarely.

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The Ntoma female, who is the independent daughter of Mobeni, seems to have taken over the territory in the southern parts of the western sector. She is now just under four years old (born in January 2014), but like her mother is very shy and we do not often see her. Hopefully, in time, she will learn to relax around vehicles as her confidence in her new territory develops.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

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