@Bushbuddies.....lovely sighting of Miera. We weren't lucky enough to see her even with a lot of trying! You have some lovely photos of her, and you are right she is very relaxed around cars which can make the sighting quite exciting
You are also right that she isn't a huge leopard but size is a difficult one to relate to age. Most of the female leopards can appear to be quite small particularly if you are used to seeing the big males. If you look at my earlier picture of Tebogo walking in the road he is only as tall as the road side verge and Safran who is an established female is smaller then him! If you had Safran and Miera next to each other I would bet there wouldn't be a huge size difference.
AstroMatt wrote:
Take a look at the close up picture of Tebogo below. He is about half Miera's age but has a completely black (or dark) nose. The variations in nose colour are not particularly well understood.
AstroMatt wrote:
If I can also use Safran as another example. She has quite a pink nose and is most likely 7+ years old.
What is a much better indicator of age is the staining on the canine teeth, the older the leopard the more staining. These photos are a great example of this. If you look at the three pictures above then you would clearly place them in the correct age order. However, estimating a more precise age bracket does require a lot more knowledge.
@Son Godin...at least you can see what you missed
I think you are right Gharagab is a bit too far for the evening drive, but i've been told the camps waterhole is becoming more active.
Hopefully next time we'll be in the same camp for a shared sighting.
@Lion Queen....great gifs of Warona. She is becoming quite the tormentor of small animals
Glad I could help.
