Ladies disputing territory!

Some very interesting territorial interaction yesterday between 2 of our most viewed and relaxed female Leopards…

We were following the Tlangisa female (2 yrs old) strolling along in her new territory and she was scent marking vigorously! Then suddenly out of nowhere came the Metsi female, her older step sister (5yrs) who is territorial on the western side of Tlangisa.

Metsi followed her for about 5 minutes, stalking, crouching and marking on top of Tlangisa’s scent without her even knowing…we thought a possible clash was imminent! Tlangisa eventually saw her and ran in the opposite direction, avoiding the conflict and confirming that Metsi is on top for now. Metsi seems to be increasing her territory in a south eastern direction and it will be interesting to see if Tlangisa moves north or stands her ground. EXCITING times!!!

Metsi does have two 11 month old male cubs to look after so needs as much space as possible, Tlangisa is very strong for her age but possibly lacks confidence that only comes with experience!

Enjoy the pix and video below (Thanks Simon the super tracker for the great video)

[FMP width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.leopardhills.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110417-Metsi-Tlangisa.flv[/FMP]