2:1 Male Leopard (Songile's Brother)

Name: This male has not been properly named, and is referred to as Shongile’s brother, but as she has two brothers, he is distinguished by having a 2:1 whisker spot pattern.  Interestingly enough, as he got older, he lot one of his spots, now effectively having a 2:0 pattern!

Born: March 2008

Territory: This male was not regularly seen, but after parting ways with his mother and siblings does now appear to venture onto Motswari more often than he used to. He seems to spend more time around Argyle Dam and west up to Vyeboom Dam, as well as further north into Ingwelala.  To the south, he does go as far as Sohebele Dam, so he gets around; typical of a young male leopard.

Females: This male is too young to have established a territory, so has not females with which to mate with.

Cubs: No cubs yet

Mother: Argyle Jnr female

Father: Argyle male

Siblings: Shongile female and Vyeboom Dam male

(click on map for larger view)

Neighbours: No neighbours have been established, but this young male shares his current range with Argyle Jnr female, Argyle male, Vyeboom Dam male, Shongile female, and Sibon female.

Story: This is yet another of three cubs that Argyle Jnr female raised to independence, and is seen reasonably regularly around Argyle Dam now, as an independent leopard. He will still be looking for a territory of his own, so will wander depper into the Timbavati from time to time, and as he is seen on the neighbouring Ingwelala. In July of 2010, this male was seen in the company of his mother, her 5-month old cub, his brother as well as his sister – that is five leopards – on the Ingwelala-Motswari boundary! This was unusual to see not just because of the number of leopards, but because they were reasonably well-tolerated by the mother, even with her young cub present. Time will tell if this male hangs around the area for much longer, or if he moves off to the north. He seems to be the least relaxed of the three offspring, but is fairly relaxed at night if approached cautiously.  During the day, he doesnt hang around and moves off very quickly.

Interesting News: January and February 2011 - Despite my initial opinion that this young male did not spend much time in our area, we have seen him with pleasing regularity; most regularly sleeping on Argyle Dam wall!  He is still nervous, but a good view can be had at night.

On Argyle Dam wall

Vyeboom Dam Male Leopard



Name: Vyeboom Dam Male (after Vyeboom Dam, a large dam around which this male was regularly seen as a cub)



Born: March 2008

Territory: This is a young male that is yet to establish his own territory, and as such still utilises the territory in which his was born; but as he gets older his father (Argyle male) will push him out and he will have to look for a territory of his own. There is a lack of males in the south and east, so it is hoped that this male will move into one of those gaps. Vyeboom Dam male is named after a large dam on the Nhlaralumi, right on the northern boundary of the Timbavati, where he frequently hangs out. This leopard is often seen around Motswari camp and the rest of Motswari’s property and Argyle. Vyeboom Dam male also spends a lot of time on Ingwelala just north of the Timbavati.

Females: As this leopard is still immature and yet to establish a territory, he has no females within his range.

Cubs: No cubs yet

Mother: Argyle Jnr female

(click on map for larger view)

Father: Argyle male

Siblings: Shongile female, 2:1 male

Neighbours: This male doesn’t have permanent neighbours yet, but shares his home range with Argyle Jnr female, Argyle male, Shongile female, 2:1 male and Kuhanya female.

Story: This male was born to a remarkable female, Argyle Jnr, who amazingly raised all three of her cubs born in 2008 to independence. The Vyeboom Dam male is a relatively nervous young male, and didn’t follow in his sister’s relaxed footsteps. Just before he reached independence, we would regularly find this leopard in the rocky area of the Nhlaralumi riverbed north of Vyeboom Dam, but he would seldom tolerate a close approach, and moved off quickly if the vehicles drove to near. However, a patient approach would reward us with good sightings of this male, especially at night when one could get within a few meters of the leopard without disturbing him. After Argyle Dam filled up at the end of 2009, this male moved his activity further eastwards towards this dam and Motswari camp, and is often seen around the stretch of the Sohebele riverbed in this area. With the increase in sightings, he is slowly becoming more habituated to the vehicles, and positive steps have been made, especially on the occasions when he has managed to make large kills in close proximity to the camp. One impala kill of his lasted 6 days, and by the end of this sighting, he would not even open his eyes as the vehicles drove in and out of the sighting. We hope that this has laid a good foundation that can be worked on to develop another relaxed male leopard in the reserve. Sadly though, there is probably not a lot of time left for him in the area, because as he reaches maturity, his father will force him out and he will need to seek a territory of his own. The lack of males to the south and east of his current area might be potential future homes for this young male leopard.

Vyeboom Dam Male eating the remains of a lioness

Interesting News: 

Shongile Female Leopard

Name: Shongile Female (Shongile means ‘Beautiful’)

Born: March 2008

Territory: Shongile is still a young female and not yet fully in control of a territory. She still utilises the territory of her mother (Argyle Jnr), and spends time on Motswari, the eastern half of Argyle, and the eastern half of Ingwelala, and extends slightly north of Ingwelala into Buffelsbed. Shongile centres her activities between Ingwelala camp and Motswari.

(click on map for larger view)

Males: Shongile is not yet sexually mature, so has not been seen mating with a male. Although Argyle male is the dominant male in the area, he will preferably chose not to mate with his own daughter.

Cubs: No cubs yet

Mother: Argyle Jnr female

Father: Argyle male

Siblings: Vyeboom Dam male, 2:1 male

Neighbours: Shongile shares the area that she resides in with several leopards, including Argyle Jnr female, Argyle male, Vyeboom Dam male, 2:1 male and Kuhanya female; there could potentially be conflict between these two young females in the future as they look to set up territories of their own in a similar area.

Story: Shongile was born to Argyle Jnr as part of a litter of three cubs, all of whom survived to independence. Of these four leopards, Shongile proved to be the most relaxed, and has continued to grow in confidence around the vehicles as time goes by. This confidence comes through in the way that Shongile is regularly found in close proximity to the camp, even during the day. The night watchman regularly reports finding Shongile sleeping on the breakfast or lunch veranda, and many of the staff bump into her on the way back to the staff village. When Shongile was nearing independence and starting to hunt on her own, she discovered that that resident business of banded mongooses that wandered around the staff village in the afternoons were easy targets and on more than one occasions she was seen to run into the middle of the village to catch one of the mongooses, even with several of the staff sitting around a few meters away! Although a small leopard, Shongile is has been recorded catching much larger prey, including fully grown impalas. One interesting aspect of Shongile, and indeed her siblings, is the way that she still associates with her mother (even with her new cubs) or father. As she grows older, these interactions will become less tolerated and she will have to move to the periphery of her mother’s territory and look for a piece of land of her own. We hope that she makes the property around Motswari part of her future territory.

Many guides will however remember her most famously for the time she was found sleeping in a fish eagle's nest!  As an opportunistic hunter, Shongile seized the moment and climber high up into a knobthorn tree and ended up eating not only the chicks, but also one of the adult fish eagles!  She then spent the rest of the day sleeping in the nest - it was probably the strangest place I ever found a leopard!

Interesting News:

Argyle Jnr Female Leopard

  

Name: Argyle Jnr Female (so called after the property on which she is regularly seen)

Born: Unknown – probably late 1990’s

Territory: Argyle Jnr is territorial over the northern area of the Timbavati, with the majority of her territory falling north of the Timbavati in Ingwelala. In the Timbavati, Argyle Jnr frequents the properties of Motswari, Argyle and the very northern section of Peru (on mostly on the eastern side of the Nhlaralumi). On Ingwelala, Argyle Jnr is the dominant female over their portion of Argyle, with her territory’s northern and western boundaries unlikely to extend too far past Argyle Rd in either direction. The eastern boundary of her territory would also be around Western Cutline, and her southern boundary would be around Sohebele Dam/Sohebele Plains in the east, and Peru Entrance Rd in the west. Argyle Jnr’s core territory seems to be similar to that of Argyle male, and centres on the wedge created by the Nhlaralumi and Sohebele Riverbeds.

(click on map for larger view)

Male: The dominant male in the area is Argyle male, but several young males are also found in the area. She normally mates with Argyle male.

Cubs: Argyle Jnr is the mother of:

2010 – Two cubs born in January 2010 (Yet to be named)

2008 – Shongile female, Vyeboom Dam male, Shongile’s brother (2:1 male), born in March 2008

2006 – Two cubs born late 2006; Ingwelala male and sibling (possibly Voel Dam female – no positive ID)

Mother: Unknown

Father: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Neighbours: To the north, a female called the Sibon female is territorial, but doesn’t venture into the Timbavati. Argyle Jnr’s western and eastern neighbours are unknown too. In the south, Argyle Jnr share’s some overlap in territory with the smaller Mbali female.

Story: Argyle Jnr, identified by a prominent scar on her back, on the right side of her body, is an amazing mother and I don’t think it has to do with luck either! She has raised seven out of her last seven cubs (including her two current ones) without losing one of them – that is no mean feat in the harshness of the African bush. The most amazing achievement was when she raised all three cubs of her 2008 litter to independence! Firstly having three cubs is not all that common, but to successfully raise a litter of that size is almost unheard of! It was quite a sight seeing her and the three cubs together, especially if they were lying in front of camp during Boma dinner! As a leopard, she is not the most relaxed individual, but is becoming increasingly more relaxed with the vehicles, and is very chilled at night. Her first two known cubs weren’t too relaxed either, but with her second litter, she started relaxing more, and as a result Shongile turned out to be the most relaxed of the youngsters, followed by Vyeboom Dam male. With her 2010 litter, she seems to be spending a bit more time in the Timbavati, and the increased frequency of sightings is allowing her and the two cubs to become more accustomed to the Land Rovers, and they are slowly providing better viewing.

Interesting News:

Argyle Male Leopard

Name: Argyle Male (named after the Argyle property that makes up a big portion of his territory)

Born: Approximately 2002

Territory: Northern section of the reserve, especially around Motswari, and extending further north into the neighbouring reserve. The southern half of his territory falls within Motswari’s traversing area, specifically the properties of Argyle (hence his name), Motswari and Peru. The southern boundary of his territory seems to be around Woza-woza Cutline, and he is seldom seen south of this. To the east, he doesn’t extend much further east of Western Cutline, but is found on Karan’s and De Luca from time to time. Going northwards, his territory covers all of Ingwelala (a neighbouring shareblock), as well as a portion of Ntsiri (another shareblock). In the west, he occasionally crosses over Argyle Rd, but his territory doesn’t extend much further west than that. He concentrates his activities mostly between the Nhlaralumi and Sohebele riverbeds, and the wedge made by these two drainage systems seems to make up the core of his territory.

(click for larger view)

Females: Argyle male mates with two known females; Argyle Jnr female, and Mbali female. It is probable that he mates with other females further north and in the north-west, such as the Sibon female that doesn’t venture onto Motswari.

Cubs: Argyle male is the father of:

2010 – Two cubs from Argyle Jnr (yet to be named);

2009 – Shongile female, Vyeboom Dam male, Shongile’s brother (2:1 male) from Argyle Jnr;

2007 – Kuhanya female from Mbali female;

2006 – Two cubs from Argyle Jnr (Ingwelala male and possibly Voel Dam female).

Mother: Some guides suspect that Argyle male’s mother might be the legendary Argyle female that used to be one of the most relaxed leopards on the reserve until she was killed by hyenas in 2005.

Father: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Neighbours: The legendary Mangadjane male used to be the southern neighbour of Argyle male, and the two shared several encounters; the last suspected one left Mangadjane male severely beaten and limping for a couple of months afterwards. Following this suspected altercation, Mangadjane moved much further south, and didn’t venture into the northern part of his territory again. Following the demise of Mangadjane, the southern section has yet to receive a stable dominant male, but two contenders are in place – the Machaton male, and the Peru male (Goya Rd male). A leopard known as Ntambo male is territorial in the east, but he is seldom seen and little is known of this male. Currently Argyle male is sharing his territory with his two independent sons born in 2008, but as they mature he will no doubt evict them.

Story: The Argyle male leopard has been around for a while, and has been seen since 2005, but he was always a slightly nervous male, and wouldn’t allow the vehicles to approach too closely before he moved off. Sightings of him were infrequent, and he would be seen maybe only a dozen times a year, although his tracks were found around the lodge more frequently. It was only in 2009 that he really started becoming a prominent figure at Motswari. It started when he was found with an impala kill on Karan’s one morning, and although he wasn’t too pleased at our presence there (he snarled and growled a lot back then!), after three days with vehicle contact he became a bit more relaxed with the vehicles. A day later, Mangadjane was tragically killed, and suddenly there was a large, unoccupied territory to the south of Argyle male as well as a couple of females that went with it. It didn’t take long before this extremely large male started pushing further south, almost fully encompassing Mbali female’s territory within his own (although he had mated with he before to sire Kuhanya female). Over the latter half of 2009, Argyle male was staring to be seen at least a couple of times a week, and slowly became more habituated with the vehicles, but when walking through the bush, would often walk in areas that we couldn’t follow, and seldom walked straight past where the Land Rover was parked.

As 2010 pushed on, the sightings of this leopard became more and more common, and his demeanour changed so much that it is now hard to believe that he was ever concerned with vehicles! He will now casually stroll within a couple of metres of a parked Land Rover, and not even give it a second glance. As a result, this leopard now provides quality viewing whenever he is found, especially as he is the most relaxed mature male leopard in the northern Timbavati, and probably the biggest one too.

He is a very good hunter, and like most male leopards specialises in impalas, but catches an assortment of prey species. He has twice been found with young zebras hung up marula trees and he also seems to enjoy his warthogs; Grant had an amazing sighting of him just 100m from camp one lunch time playing tug-of-war with a large hyena, just instead of a rope it was a large warthog that was being pulled apart! The largest kill he has been recorded with was a fully grown female kudu that he actually killed one night in the middle of camp right against one of the bungalows, giving the guests an amazing experience to say the least! The night watchman regularly reports seeing this unmistakable leopard wandering through the camp at night.

He also seems to be a good father, which is strange to say for a leopard as male leopards seldom have anything to do with their cubs, but he was seen in the company of Argyle Jnr and her three sub-adult cubs on more than one occasion. In addition, he often tolerated his offspring to feed on his kills, even when they were independent! Of course, on other occasions he has been found chasing off his females and cubs from their own kills; he wouldn’t be a good male if he didn’t score a free meal every so often! He also indirectly protects his cubs by keeping neighbouring males out of his territory, and being a large male in his prime, we can expect him to keep this piece of land for the next few years.

Interesting News: