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Tshidi is certainly right up there jacliz - like Friedrich von Hörsten siad , a most endearing leopard

Hi Rookie glad we met again and you got to see barolong and the cubs

Wow wow wow
Amazing sighting and images

I saw this male leopard about 10km north of Urikaruus having a stand off with a cheetah mom of three cubs in December (Is this Lizette?). I will post more photos when I get a chance! Any idea of this leopards identification, he was big. They chased each other around for about 20 minutes, he looked very tired towards the end. The three cubs reunited with mom after she called for about 10 minutes.

the Cheetah could be Gertie... and I'm happy to have good news of the 3 cubs thank you

the male Leopard... interested by the females around Urikaruus

Hi Evel,

The cheetah will be Gertie and her 3 cubs and the leoprd looks like Dakotah

great sighting

Hi Evel,

We heard about this during our December stay and wondered whether the story was true.........thank you for sharing!!!



We saw Gertie the next day with the 3 cubs, all four of them well....

@Evel - a very interesting sighting of Dakotah! Can I ask when did you see him and at what time did the incident with the cheetahs occur?

If possible, could you also please fill out AstroMatt's spreadsheet with the sighting details - you will find the spreadsheet and AstroMatt's e-mail address in the following link:
http://www.ast.uct.ac.za/~schurch/leopards/

Many thanks for posting!

Also great to know that Gertie and her family are safe.

Ok here is the story with pictures as promised. We went on a afternoon game drive from Urikaruus on the 15th of December. We headed north and went passed 13th and 14th waterhole but things were rather quiet. As we came off the 13th loop on our way back to camp I spotted something running through the Auob riverbed towards the dunes. When I looked through my binoculars I saw it was a young cheetah cub. The sighting was brief and when I scanned the dunes I saw two more cubs running towards the first one and after 30 seconds they disappeared. After seeing this I was wondering where mom was so I scanned further down the riverbed. I picked up a large cheetah chasing something into the riverbed and presumed she was hunting. I drove forward and when I arrived at the the cheetah I saw what I though was another one but when I looked again it was a big male leopard standing his ground. It was the last thing I expected, a mother cheetah on the left and the leopard about 20m to the right staring at her.




They stood staring at each other for a few minutes until the leopard started to stalk the cheetah.



Gertie ran away as soon as he approached.

Then the male leopard seemed to loose interest and made his way toward the road.




He then crossed the road keeping his eyes on us.




As soon as he crossed the road you could see Gertie approaching him again and then he turned around and gave chase again.




Gertie ran off again leaving the leopard frustrated.



She lay down for awhile to rest.



After a few minutes he turned around and crossed the road again.





Once he crossed the road Gertie approached him for the third time and he swung around and gave a short chase but I think he realized he was wasting his time and stopped in the middle of the road.





He then turned around and carried on walking in the direction he was heading giving us once last glance.



By now I think he just wanted to walk away but Gertie just kept on coming after him, she walked behind him one more time but he moved up the ridge and lay down.




Gertie then walked away from the resting leopard until she was far enough from him and started calling for the cubs.




It was nearly an hour ago that we saw the cubs and we were worried for Gertie.

Then to our surprise the cubs appeared right next to the left side of our car




They couldn't see mom because our car was in the way but they soon saw her as she came into view and the family was reunited

It was amazing to see how brave she was to defend her family and drive the leopard away!
Im not sure how or why the family came into contact with the leopard but it was a sighting of a lifetime!

By now we were under pressure to get back to camp before dark but I had to stop for the beauty of our surroundings.




Its the above type of sightings and the beauty of the Kalagadi that draws me back every year!

Wanderw: We had the sighting to ourselves on the evening of the 15th December at 18:30 until 19:10.

Thanks

Wow Evel

Thanks for sharing

Wow what an awesome sighting!!!!

Thank you for sharing!!!!

Seen just south of Grootkolk on 18 December, around 6am: the male, identified by Dr Matthew Schurch as N!xau, was strolling along next to the road close to the KAA turnoff into Botswana, and walked south to the Khannaghuas water hole, but I lost him in the bush next to the road. I went along to the water hole, and after a few minutes, the female, Saffran, walked out of the veld and drank. She then marked the area and disappeared. Minutes later, N!xau came walking out, drank, sniffed her scent and set off after her after marking over her scent. Apparently N!xau has not been seen for a few years.
N!xau

Saffran

Hi Jacowolmarans and welcome to the forum..........

Stunning sighting and thank you for sharing...........

Welcome jacowolmarans

great sighting of Safran and N!xau

Yep, N!xau was last recorded on 19 Feb 2009. May have been seen by non forumites though. Seems like he is going to be kept busy be Safran and Rosa .

Welcome jacowolmarans

Thank you for your wonderful photos of N!xau and Saffron

Amazing interaction shots Evel