KTP Leopard: N!xau

[wanderw]

Named after the actor in the 1980 movie 'The gods must be crazy' and sequels, in which he played the Kalahari Bushmen Xixo(name means Kalahari One)

Now posting on Pumbaa's behalf:

Introducing ...N!xau
- a new addition to this thread and recently added to AstroMatt's ID guide.

Seen by Pumbaa and Timon on the 16th of February 2009, between Kannaguass and Ljiersdraai.







I know that Pumbaa and Timon saw this leopard in 2009, but there is a good possibility that he/she is still out there!

[jacowolmarans]

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

[jacowolmarans]

Thanks all for the kind words and welcome! As a leopard newbie, I must confess I had a serious bout of "bokkoors" when I spotted N!xau. Within seconds, my foot on the clutch pedal went into such an uncontrollable spastic twitch I had to take the car out of gear for fear of stalling.

I realised this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime shots, and had to force myself to breathe deeply, position my bean bag and be calm. Twitching foot or not, I managed to snap off a series that thankfully turned out sharp enough to use. As luck would have it, the light was just special, the sun squeezing through low clouds just above the horizon in that special yellow colour that lights up the cat's eyes. One of these shots is currently being enlarged for my foyer:

[RichardJ]

3km south of Kannagaus, 07h36, 26 March 2013

N!xau ?? a male!!!

possibly also seen around midday by our neighbours at GK as well...similar spot

[AstroMatt]

Hi Richard,
Great sighting and you are 100% right it is N!xau
I think he's probably the big male in the North at the moment.
Thanks for posting....if it had been earlier in the day i'm not sure i would have believed you

[Touareg]

We had a great KTP trip from 8 tp 16 December seeing Leopard every day.

Here is N!xau just 3km South of the Grootkolk turnoff.


Kgalagadi - Dec '13_03893 by cooper5022, on Flickr

Camera Nikon D4
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 600 mm
ISO Speed 1250

[wanderw]

Hi Touareg!
Wow! Leopard every day! You sure were lucky and had a great trip! Thanks for posting these beautiful pix!

Great sighting of N!xau ! Nice to know that he is fine. I think the last recorded sighting that AstroMatt has of him, he seemed to have been in a fight and was looking a bit worse for wear.

[AstroMatt]

So to follow-up the previous days play fighting we returned to the scene early the next day to see what had happened over night.

To our amazement the previously whole springbok carcass had been devoured and little more than the head and neck and a few dangly legs were left.

Lying by the side of the road with a full belly was N!xau the dominant local male! He didn't like being disturbed early in the morning and quickly crossed the road in front of us and disappeared over the ridge. We tried to locate him by trying different views but had no luck.


After feeding for a while Safran suddenly became a bit nervous. She then leapt down the tree and dashed away. This was when we noticed the big N!xau running after her.


He obviously hadn't gone far during the morning and could either see, smell or hear her eating. After a short attempt to follow her he gave up and headed for the tree. Check out the staining on his teeth....he is also about 7+ years old.


N!xau tucking into breakfast. Unlike Safran he had to settle for the lower branches. Eventually he climbed down and sat under the tree guarding the kill.

[AstroMatt]

It was our last morning at Grootkolk and we decided to head north to try and find Rosa or Bontle. After having no success (we did find a cheetah so not really no success ) we headed back to camp to pack up and leave.

On our drive down to Nossob about 5kms further north from where we'd had all the other sightings we came across N!xau lying under a tree with a wildebeest carcass lying in the river! The time was about 09:45


After speaking to our neighbours who had headed south early in the morning we learnt that there had been hyenas feeding during the early hours. But they had left and N!xau had appeared.


We believe that it was N!xau who made this kill due to an actual sighting of him making another wildebeest kill the following day! This next kill was at the location where Touareg photographed him....when we found this out we wished we'd stayed an extra night

We couldn't stay long as we had to make it to Urikaruus. But i believe he sat under this tree for most of the day.

So ended our incredible stay at Grootkolk....we'll definitely be heading back

[PRWIN]

Id anyone ( taken on the 16-07-2017 at Bedink)

[barryels]

Stunning pictures PRWIN .

According to me you saw N!xau .

The last time he was seen was during February 2014.

wanderw will confirm if I am correct .

[wanderw]

@PRWIN - lovely sighting of N!xau. N!xau was last seen mid April this year at Polentswa.

Spot on with the ID Barry!

[PRWIN]

Thanks Barryels and wander

N!xau ,

[jan.dup]

On our visit to KTP we saw a very sick/old leopard at Kousant on the 16th and 18th of January which was barely alive. Does anyone know which leopard it is/was. Always a sad sight to see the end of a magnificant creature like that.

[wanderw]

Hi jan.dup! The project has had another report of the leopard at Kousant. It is N!xau. He was seen there on the 16th and again on the 21st. We suspect that his condition is due to a fight with a new male. The new male was found dead at the Polentwa Lodge's waterhole. If you do have a few pics and if you have time, please post here or send them to the project. Many thanks.