Leopards of Sabi Sands

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Mala Mala today: 

8 leopard sightings: The Piccadilly female killed an impala along the banks of the Mlowathi River, just north of its confluence with the Sand River. She was viewed their on both days. The daughter of the Tamboti female was also seen on both days as she finished off her impala kill south of Sable Camp. Both cubs of the Emsagweni female were at Paddy’s Pools. The Senegal Bush male was spotted at Sand Pit Crossing. The Xivindsi female was seen in the south. The Three Rivers female was found at Dudley Crossing.



Londolozi: 

The Ndzanzeni young male is popping up all over the show, now that he seems to be under pressure from his father the Inyathini male to vacate the area. The reality with young males is that once they are properly independent, thy will likely establish themselves in another part of the reserve and we will stop seeing them.

   
Credits: Londolozi, James Tyrrell


One of the Ximungwe female’s cubs looks down unavailingly for help. Scrambling round on fallen logs and other obstacles is how these young leopards will hone their climbing skills; they won’t always get it right, but that’s what practice is for. Chances are high that when they need to climb, they will need to climb urgently, so failing when their mother is around to safeguard them is probably the best way to do it for now.

   


[i]The Mashaba female rests next to the warthog kill she had stashed up in a marula tree. The white moustache on this young warthog is theorised to be a fake tusk, buying it an extra half second to escape if a predator hesitates before taking on such a weapon. Clearly that theory didn’t work out for this young pig.[/i]

   


One of the Nhlanguleni female’s cubs bounds across the Sand River to link up with its mother and sister who had already crossed. Watch out for a full post on this sighting coming next week.

   



The Three Rivers female (formerly Xidulu young female) has been featuring prominently in our sightings data over the last couple of months, and the hope is that she establishes a proper territory for herself in Londolozi’s south-eastern corner.

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