Author: LH Focus Online

Mondzo Male Leopard has been away from his mother Xikavi for some time now and has been looking after himself extemely well. He is often found in the presence of either Khokovela or Basile female Leopards and at times even shares a meal with Dayone.

He was seen not too far from a kill that was hoisted into a tree with a hyena lurking nearby. Basile also joined him in the area – so he is still very comfortable in the area his mother raised him.

Approaching 3years now, it will be interesting to see where he moves to as the pressure is being increased by Ravenscourt, who is now venturing further into Dayone’s territory – which up until now has been the home of the young Mondzo male.

The season has started changing, with the bush still lush green after the rains, there is a wonderful chill in the air and the return of golden winter light. So to it will be an interesting season for Mondzo as he starts gaining more experience as an adult leopard.

 

Spending time with a travelling herd of Elephant to start the new year of 2018.

Best wishes to everyone for 2018 from the Leopard Hills Family 

 

The summer rains have started arriving and the bush has turned into a beautiful bright green as everything has freshened up.

 

One morning after tracking down and following the Mhangene pride for most of the morning, we heard that the pack of Wild Dogs had been found. We decided to head on over to the area where the dogs had started to settle down. Being late in the morning and already fairly hot we expected the pack to just be lazing around and mostly sleeping.

 

As we entered the sighting, the first thing we saw was a Hyena carrying an Impala carcass in its mouth with three of the Wild dogs following close by. There was however no sign of the rest of the pack. We followed them to a shady area where the Hyena decided to feast on his stolen spoils. Meanwhile the three dogs stayed close by just watching and hoping to get some back.

We could hear the rest of the pack calling in the distance, and with that one of the three dogs started running straight back to the rest of the pack while the other two remained. It wasn’t too long before we could see the pack return. With the pack in full force the Hyena realized that it was outnumbered and made a hasty retreat, leaving the Wild dogs to feed on their well earned meal.

Please enjoy the video below and remember to turn up your volume to hear the excitement of the pack.

Written by Hugo Breed

Over the last few weeks we have been fortunate to view the Mhangene pride in the Western Sector. It is amazing to watch this pride move as they consist of sixteen lions in total. Four females and twelve youngsters, of which nine are males. If they all break away together we could possibly see another strong coalition to rival the likes of the Mapogo.

During one of our sightings we watched as they competed against each other to get their helping of a juvenile Giraffe that they killed.

It is incredible to watch how these youngsters already have that competitive and survival spirit.

Enjoy the video below.

 

Thlangisa (The Playful One)

“Leopard cubs found” the words that brings joy and excitement to every ranger working in the Western sector.

This was the same joy we found in a little female leopard cub, we would later know as Thlangisa.

Born in April 2009 Thlangisa immediately demanded a soft spot in the heart of each person that saw her. She was from the start a very bold, active and adventures cub. She grew up as an extremely playful young leopard leading to her name Thlangisa meaning “the playful one” in the local language Shangaan.

At age 18 months she became independent and set up her territory just North of the Sand river in an area that was vacant at the time.

She gave birth to her first litter in April 2014, two female cubs that she raised to adulthood, proving to us that she is a good mother. We are still seeing both the females in our area as independent territorial and very relaxed adults now.

In November 2015, she gave birth to her second litter that she unfortunately lost rather quickly.

In the end of October 2016 Thlangisa gave birth to her third litter, two cubs who is currently just over three months old, sex still unknown, and looking healthy.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for Thlangisa to raise this litter to independence and handing down yet another generation of this amazing bloodline.