Over the last month, we have had some amazing and memorable sightings. Especially of three new young male leopards. Originally, our leopard sightings were short-lived and mostly of female leopards. However, with these new additions to our Kapama family, we have been seeing more of these cats.
Luckily for us, these males are extremely relaxed and do not really take note of the vehicles around – they just continue with their natural behaviours. This is very strange for these elusive cats as they do not usually stay in an area for long enough to be used to the vehicles.
Leopards have massive territories, usually overlapping with different reserves. The males, especially, have big territories – within their territories are about three or four female territories. However, two of the new resident males are still quite young so their territories are much smaller than a male’s territory should be. Therefore, their movements have not been so vast.
These males allow us to get a different view and insight of these amazing animals. Instead of seeing them for just two or three minutes, they allow us to spend a lot of time with them, thereby allowing you as guests, as well as us as rangers, to learn and experience various behaviours of leopards.
Kapama welcomes these new male leopards with open arms and we hope that they stay and form their territories within our boundaries. Hopefully, then, our leopard sightings will become a more common and memorable experience.
KC – Kapama River Lodge
18/02/2013
