Kgalagadi Leopard Sightings

[Duke]

Tsamma - 09 August 2013 at 14 Borehole











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[Mel]

Auchterlonie Female 9th and 16th October 2013 at Auchterlonie





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[Mel]

Warona (daughter of the Auchterlonie Female) on the 16th October 2013 at Auchterlonie
and 800 metres north of Auchter on the 17th.





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[ExFmem]

Miera - Oct. 22, 2013
1 - 2 kms. north of Bateluma approx. 6:30 - 7 A.M.









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[ExFmem]

Auchterlonie Female - October 30, 2013



First sighted on a ridge on the lower dune road @ its conjunction w/ main Aoub road, approx. 6:15 A.M.
She spotted a springbok in the river bed and stalked it (crouch, wait, approach, wait…) for close to 1 hour (7:10 A.M.)





This pic shows how close she got, without detection. The springbok was oblivious to her presence.



Suddenly, she just stood up, walked across the river bed, and disappeared over the dune, having abandoned her hunt.





There were only 2 cars there and neither of us moved, so she wasn't scared off for that reason. When we first saw her, she appeared to be retching/heaving, so perhaps she wasn't feeling well that morning. (?)

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[ExFmem]

Tshidi - November 8, 2013
Just south of the approach to Urikaruus (< 1 km ?), left roadside (heading north). Approx. 10 - 11 A.M.

This should be a well reported sighting, as there were lots of cars.

Straight on

Left


Right

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[Tina]

Cagn at Leeuwdril 06.09.2012







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[ExFmem]

Warona - November 13, 2013

Vicinity of Houmoed, left side (heading north)
Approx. 10:00 - 11:00 A.M. (?)





Lying peacefully under a tree, then seemed to become acutely aware of something (in one of the cars??, other side of the road ??) and abruptly took off.



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[AstroMatt]

Happy New Year to everyone! Our trip to the KTP over december was a real success. We had a few amazing leoaprd sightings. I've started to post these (as i sort photos) on the SANParks forum and on the new facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KTPLeopards). In case any of you haven't seen them there i will repost the sighitng here.

So...I thought I'd start with some photos from our first leopard sighting of the December trip.

2013-12-07 Dakotah
~2km south of Urikaruus, there all day.



A zoom in on all we could initially see.


After repositioning the car we found a better view and he obliged by lifting his head allowing for us to make a positive identification. However, this view was short lived as he was scared away by a large overland truck that had stopped.


12:44 - After a trip back to Urikaruus for lunch we returned to find him back under the bush. :)


16:20 - For the next few hours the traffic along the road was very quiet and we managed to get some lovely views as he repositioned himself.


18:49 - Towards sunset he decided to move further over the ridge and he could only be seen when imitating a southern right whale!


19:20 - We decided to quickly check on some lions down the road and to give him some space to come down. When we returned he had come down to the river but didn't like the attention of two cars and went back up theridge.


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[AstroMatt]

So the next sighting we had was in the Grootkolk area. Again we were fortunate enough to have a tip off on the night of the 9th December. Andries informed me that the guests who had just checked into Unit 1 had seen a leopard feeding on a kill some where south of the camp. When I went over to ask them about it they told me that it was exactly 20kms South of Grootkolk but that they hadn't managed to get a photo, even through the leopard was only a few metres from the road. The kill was stashed under a fallen down tree. Whoever this was a big thank you

2013-12-10 Tebogo and Safran
20km south of Grootkolk at 07:00

So the following morning we quickly made our way down and and to our amazement we found Tebogo lying just off the road next to a fallen down tree cleaning his paws at just after 6am. We couldn't see him well at first as the driedoring was very high but we could see the kill and enough of him for an ID.

Pretty soon he decided to get up and go for a little wander. He was very relaxed and looked well fed.


We then noticed that far on the other side of the river there was a spotted hyena coming down the bank with a leg in his mouth. It had rained a lot the past few days and there was a lot of water in the river. He came down to drink and bath a bit.



To our utter amazement Tebogo decided that he was quite interested in the hyena and started to stalk him. He walked directly at him and started to crouch down low!


Eventually the hyena caught wind of him and charged. Tebogo quickly darted away in the direction of a big tree. What he was up to I don't know...I guess young cats are just curious!


The hyena then made a be line directly back along the route Tebogo had taken and we through he was going to steal the kill But for some reason he ignored it and wandered back across the river and up the bank towards where he'd come from. It was whilst watching him that we suddenly realised that there was a second leopard hanging out in a tree! By this time it was 7am and we had another car at the sighting.


I've only just realised this tonight that for the second time in my life I've taken a photo of a leopard and not realised it! If you didn't notice it then in the picture of the hyena with the leg in his mouth you can see a leopard hanging out!

We were able to identify the second leopard as Safran (even at this far distance). She was not happy with the hyena sniffing around. I've also just noticed tonight that there was a springbok head in the tree! So there were two kills.


Tebogo then decided that he hadn't seen enough of hyenas so he decided to go and say a second hello :wall: He walked directly up the bank towards the hyena and mum. You can see all three in this picture.


Unsurprisingly the hyena charged again and Tebogo dashed off. He was lucky to make it into a small near by tree before the hyena arrived. The hyena sat under this tree for quite a while. In all the commotion Safran managed to slip out of the tree and disappeared somewhere. The hyena eventually wandered off and Tebogo came down and rested under the tree.


By now it was 8am and we had to leave in order to nip down to Lijersdraai for a loo stop. However, this was not the end of this sighting...