SANParks.org Forums

Morning everone, great topic .........have enjoyed the reading.

On the morning of the 20th December about 3.2km from Urikaruus own the way down to the upper dune road, we came across a mother Leopard with her almost full grown cub, in the middle of the Auob. They had just caught a young springbok and she proceeded to let her youngster learn a few leasons. As we arrived they made their way to the other side of the river so I was unable to get good images, they were just to quick. I kept the images for 'Astromat', though I would include them here for interest sake:





Making their way to the other side of the river. The cub would hang onto the Springbok, pulling and tugging until mother let the bokkie go and the game was on again.



We watched them for almost 2 hours without any other cars. Although a great siting it was difficult watching the baby Springbok being caught over and over and over again. The cub would let it go and dart after it, catch it, rest and then let it go again (up and down the dune). Eventually the learning game took its tol on the bokkie and one could see it was worn out and badly injured. They eventually disappeared behind a large Shepards Tree far up a dune. We left ................ not speaking for a while, letting the events sink in.

Unbeknown to us, we would have further encounters with this cub when we return to urikaruus in 2 days time.

and without any other car... that is Kgalagadi

Wow....what a sighting!!
The mum is obviously Barolong, and the cub (being male, and from spots) is Tshidi. It is odd that Seleka isn't there playing with them. However, i've had another report of Seleka being seen south of 13th bore hole on the 24th December so she was still alive at this point.

Can't wait to see the rest of your sightings shane

Great sighting Shane

Hope Seleka is OK

Thanks Guys.

Matthew I still need to get these images to you:

The images above were taken just before 6:00am.

The following sequence of images were taken 4.6km south of Urikaruus not far from the images above so I presume it's the cub again. This was on the 23 December just after 12:00.
The mother was no where to be seen so I am not sure whether the cub caught the Springbok itself. One thing I will say, is that the bokkie must have just been caught when we arrived on the scene:



I took at couple of Images of her feeding, but she was mostly behind the street stump so we quickly went to drop off our ice at urikaruus and came back for more:







The cub eventually came down from the tree, walked towards u, crossed the road and disappeared over the dunes.

The following afternoon the 24 December we heard the cub was back in the same tree. We to have a look just after 16:00. There was a Springbok in the tree, but can't be sure whether it was still the same one from the day before. Unfortunately I could get any images of the cub eating; the branches were to thick. I got a couple of him having a snooze:

superb, what a lot of chance you had

What a great early Xmas present and some really wonderful pics again!
I'm really pleased that you had this sighting as it is actually of the second cub Seleka...so you've now seen the whole family
The report i had been sent of her on the 24th was also with a springbok kill but they couldn't remember where it was, only that it was before 13 bore hole, so your sighting has nicely cleared up the location

Not a problem Matthew, will get the images to you shortly ........... was good sitings.

During the 6 days we spend at Urikaruus we saw 4 Leopard around camp. Unfortunately I couldn't get pics of them. One was a male, for sure, and the other 2 sighting was were of the same female (all at the waterhole). The last siting was at 22:35 on 25 Decemeber.

It's quiet a storey:

We had invited Eric (camp Manager) over for xmas dinner. At about 21:45 we heard the Jackals barking down river. Jackals barking in this manner are synonymous with the presents of a Leopard. They eventually stopped and Eric decide to go back to his unit, but I drove him back from our unit no. 4. Lucky we did because the Leopard was around. He must have been walking under the unit from no. 1 towards no. 4 because when I got back I went to sit out on the deck again. I sat in the front left hand corner of the deck and put the torch on and there was the Male Leopard. He had just mark the tree in front of the unit and came to sit below me a 1 metre from the deck and just watched me. He sat like that for probably a minute and a half. Tracy was upstairs, in the shower, so I couldn't call her. The Leopard eventually got up and went to mark under unit no. 3.

I rushed up to call Tracy. By this time he was standing at the bottom of the steps to the camp manages unit. He disappear behind Eric's unit. 30 min later I heard the Jakcals barking up the Auob ........... so he had made his way north.

2 Minutes so close to this Leopard (without feeling threatened), will stay with me for a LOOOONG time.

WoW and WOW!!!! You had stupendous once in a lifetime encounters too be so close to a leopard without fear STUNNING!

here is a photo of the leopard in the tree on the 24. dezember Shane was telling above.
We made the pic at about 5:30 pm.



We stayed in the unit no. 3 next to shane on x-mas. But we missed the leopard in the night because we were sleeping

Frisian, thanks for the pic ..... Nice to know you are here with us on the forum - don't you have any other images ?

Hi Shane,
this was the only leopard we saw.

But here is a second picture:

Thanks for the sighting frisian, good to know she was in the tree all day.
You said you didn't have any other leopard sighitngs on this trip but have you had any in the past in KTP? If you have i'd love to have them for my records.

Sorry AstroMatt,
this was the first visit to KTP. We have only been to the KNP.