SANParks.org Forums

What a cutie, lion queen

Spotted at about 10 meter along the S86 loop (between Tshokwane and Satara)

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Beautiful Aat

That's indeed the facts of leopard-seeking, JoJ. Cheetah and wild dogs too. Many people these days increase their chances by staying in radio/cellphone contact with other people; however, for us that takes the excitement out of looking, so we prefer to find our own cats and dogs, just like we did in the old days when technology meant V8s, a fridge ice-maker, or a high-tech record needle!

We've seen jeep jokkies sprinting around from one sighting to the next - but we always prefer the slow, steady pace, enjoying every thing we see ... and I mean everything! I cannot count how many times we've been at a lion kill, or a cheetah sighting, or a leopard in the grass or a tree, and someone arrives, takes a few pics, then leaves to find something better. Something better?! What's better than lions munching and growling at a kill, or cheetah by the side of the road, or a leopard in a tree??? Last time we saw three leopards - yes, THREE - in a mating spree, some of the activity taking place in the open! The amount of people that hung around more than fifteen minutes I can count on one hand; and that was a busy tar road.

I would insist that they would still be spotted at 20m, 50m, and even 1km, Aat. Or, more correctly, rosetted, with the lower legs, the belly, and the head spotted.


Seriously, magnificent sighting, magnificent pics, Aat.

Wow Stunning images and sightings:clap:

We found this Leopard about 5km from Paul Kruger Gate in April

Do any one know why it have collar around his neck?



This is the famous Lake Panic Leopard on the gravel road to LP.

Really beautiful pics of the Leopard.

Hey

I saw this leopard when visiting the Kgalagadi 2 years ago. I have been going there for years and seen many leopards, but this one looked so much smaller than usual. Is this a female or young leopard?

Welcome to the forums Lisa

Great sighting...its looks like an old female to me. Females as you may know are generally much smaller than males so perhaps you have seen males mostly and thats why it appeared so much smaller!

Hi Lisa and welcome

Agree with o-dog, it looks like a female. She hasn't had a decent meal in a while judging from her protruding pelvic bone and shoulderblade. She might be old and cannot hunt anymore.

Thanks so much for the response
I definitely must have just seen male leopards, because I have never seen one as small as this.
Thank you so much for the info
Loving this forum!

Hi lisavanv
A BIG welcome to the forum.
You have made my day! The leopard you saw is/was? Marie. You saw her about a month after she was first seen at Marie's se Draai in KTP. From the first sighting we believed she was very sick as she was very thin, she also had an amber right eye. From your pic, she seems in slightly better condition a month later. For some pix of her first sighting you can go to

http://www.ast.uct.ac.za/~schurch/leopards/

or the KTP leopard ID thread

viewtopic.php?style=2&f=38&t=18567&start=480
(page 17 of this thread)

There is an ongoing KTP leopard ID project. If you look at the first address I gave you, you will find a leopard ID booklet you can download, as well as a spreadsheet. If possible, could you fill in the spreadsheet for the project, with details of your sighting and a pic or two. Also, You are welcome to include any details of previous KTP leopard sightings and pix. The more info we collect, the better it is for the project. You will also find AstroMatt's e-mail address included with the spreadsheet format(KTP leopard sightings).

In case you do not have time to fill in the spreadsheet, can I ask you where did you see her and what was she doing?
Many thanks
Wanda

Hi lisavanv,
Great sighting and you are right she is a small leopard and not doing very well . As Wanderw has pointed out you can find out more about the parks leopards looking in my guide and on the leopard ID thread....thanks Wanderw

You said you've seen many leos over the years. If you have other sightings of KTP leopards then i would really like to hear about them for my project. If you could fill in the spreadsheet with all your leo sightings in KTP and send it to me i would really appreciate it . If you would like to try and identify the leos first then it would save me a lot of work (just attach an example pic so i can confirm) otherwise you could send me the photos that you think i can use to id them ie side shots, or head shots. If there are a lot of pics then email me first and we can find an easier way of sending them other than email.

Thanks ...and to anyone else out there that has similar historical sightings please do send them in as they are as important if not more so that current new sightings as they could provide ages and or links between leopards.

I haven't been to KTP in 2 years, so my memory is a bit hazy.
Here's another pic of her.
I will try do the spreadsheet But as I said, I don't remember much.
I'm excited to dig up some pics and share them

I see in the Identification doc that it says Marie was deceased March 2010. My pics were taken in April 2010 Would have loved to have seen Marie up close because that amber eye is amazing!