Guests visiting Pondoro Game Lodge were really blessed with exceptional sightings of this leopard cub during the end of September and beginning of October 2015 after guides discovered a leopard den site close to Rock Fig road. She is quite inquisitive and seems to look forward to game drive times as if waiting for the first safari vehicles to arrive for morning and evening drives. She certainly likes all the attention and tries to put up a really good show for a very eager audience. A possible diva in the making?
Mother leopards make use of den sites to hide their cubs from potential danger like hyenas, lions and even elephants and buffaloes. They often use abandoned aardvark burrows inside termite mounds or would hide them on top of rocky outcrops. The discovery of such a den site is treasured as guides would make use of this opportunity to slowly habituate the cubs to the presence of vehicles and it also guarantee some good leopard sightings for a while until the mother eventually decide to move the cubs. There can be many reasons for moving them such as an increase in fleas and other biting insects or just that the chances of discovery by predators has increased to an unacceptable level.
Post by Robbie Prehn
