Camp Pan male vs Anderson male.
This is a tough one, in that neither individual has been officially weighed, as far as I know, and we will never see them next to each other. We are probably going to have to go with our gut feelings.
One can often make incorrect assumptions or declarations when viewing animals in the wild, especially pertaining to the size of the animal, as a lot of factors come into play. Frame of reference, emotional attachment, spatial perspective and a host of others all affect one’s judgement, and at the end of the day, a definitive conclusion is still probably going to be hard to reach.
The Camp Pan and Anderson male leopards have never, as far as I know, come into contact with each other. The Camp Pan male was born about 15 years ago and, sadly, is probably now deceased, while the Anderson male is a relative youngster, being born in 2008.
While the Anderson male was resident in the north-central reaches of the Sabi Sands at a time when the Camp Pan male was holding territory in SE Londolozi, the two males were separated by not only distance but also by the buffer of other big males in between. The only time they could possibly have met up was when the Camp Pan male finally got pushed out of his territory by a combination of the Piva and Inyathini males and became nomadic. Having said this, once evicted the Camp Pan male did seem to confine most of his movements to the areas bordering the Sand River, skulking through the reedbeds and trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible. I doubt whether he moved far enough north that he would have encountered the Anderson male.
The Tamboti young female clambers on the Camp Pan male. His bulk is evident here when pictured next to a female leopard (Tamboti female, pictured left) and her cub. Photograph by Lucien Beaumont
The Camp Pan male was a big leopard. Fact. He was immensely powerful, and I personally saw him with the hoisted carcasses of kudus, young wildebeest and juvenile zebras. Not small animals to carry up into the trees. His tracks were what really set him apart, however, and I doubt I will ever again see a leopard with feet that big. His “unmistakeable” tracks were, in fact, mistaken for those of a lioness on more than one occasion.
The Camp Pan male’s sheer size helped him control territory for a lot longer than the average tenure expected of a male leopard in the Sabi Sands.
It seems, sadly, that the Camp Pan male has moved on to the happy hunting ground in the sky, but in his wake has come a new challenger for the title of “Biggest leopard on Londolozi”.
The Anderson male has started to show his hand after the disappearance of the Gowrie male, and rangers, trackers and guests alike are all being wowed by the sheer size of this enormous individual. They say that first impressions last, and one of the first things the Anderson male did when establishing territory on Londolozi was to hoist the carcass of a young giraffe. Yes, a giraffe! Giraffe foals are born weighing around 100kg, and I’m here to tell you that the Anderson male had not eaten much of the kill before carrying it into the branches of a long-tailed cassia. It was a truly outrageous display of strength.
The Anderson male leaps for the tree in which his giraffe kill was stashed. Photograph by James Tyrrell
Imagine picking up 200 pounds. Then imagine picking it up with your mouth. Then imagine climbing a tree with it! This will give you some idea of the incredible power-to-weight ratio of a large leopard like the Anderson male. Photograph by James Tyrrell
Bigger than the Camp Pan male? I believe so… Photograph by James Tyrrell
I remember when I first began working in the bush and a leopard was just a leopard. Male, female, young, old… my untrained eye struggled to tell the difference. Living in a leopard-rich environment has since given me the opportunity to build up a frame of reference when it comes to identifying and/or sizing individuals, and my first impression of the Anderson male – which remains – was that he is bigger than the Camp Pan male.
Many will shout me down here, Camp Pan loyalists in particular. But having seen the old campaigner many, many times over the years, and now suddenly coming face to face with the Anderson male, I am pretty convinced that should each of these giants of the leopard world have been weighed, the scales would have tipped in favour of the Anderson male…
Comments, disagreements and opinions welcome…
Written and Photographed by James Tyrrell
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Awesome Blog James out of loyalty too my boy Camp Pan I have too disagree haha but either way they are both huge monsters of the leopard world and heres hoping Anderson has a reign like Camp Pans. BTW Camp Pan also killed a young giraffe back in the day I think back in 2006 I once saw it mentioned in a Ranger Diary by a Londolozi Ranger was the first thing I ever read about him but not sure if he hoisted it that is insane they can do that.
Great blog James,the Anderson male is bigger than Camp Pan and not even full grown,i think that he will end up as one of the largest male leopards ever.When was he last seen in Londolozi?
holy crap…..There we have our 100 kg leopard….
or close to it…
Biggest in the Sabi Sands…that would be between Mr. Anderson and Vin Diesel in Lion Sands he was weighed 2 times at 84 and 97 kg
Awesome blog James. It is sad to think Camp Pan is no more but it is the cycle of life. He was such an amazing leopard.
Great blog James and the pictures are incredible! I’m really sad to think that Camp Pan is gone — with his rich, golden coat, he was so beautiful and he will be very missed. The Anderson male does look a little bigger than Camp Pan (going by the pictures here) but they must be very close in size.
Truly impressive leopards and my personal favourite big cat. Your blog is something I look forward to every day.
Nice blog James. What an amazing sight! Can’t wait to see the Anderson male but very sad to think we will never see Camp Pan again after following him for so many years …
there are some big boys around at the moment. Mr Anderson is definatly at the top of the tree (so to speak) and yes, Vin Deisel in Lion Sands is a monster too.
Adam did you ever see Vin Diesel? half brother of Mvula but bigger
It would be worth preserving the skull of a leopard like Camp Pan, if it is possible to do so of course. Would be interesting to see how he would stack up in the record books.
Hi chui,
nice to see you here 🙂
yes, we need skulls and you guy’s should measure footprints!!
James thank you as always for the post! This one really hit home for me as I was sitting in one of your vehicles 10 feet away when Anderson grabbed that giraffe and ran up the tree with it. I didn’t quite realize how incredible it was until I saw our ranger Melvin with his jaw dropped. One of the most incredible things I have seen. He is an extremely impressive leopard.
These blogs are great. I was lucky to see the Anderson male after a scrap with the Gowrie male in northern Sabie in July and he was so much bigger looking then the Gowrie but it was only my second safari so not a lot to compare to. Amazing to watch such a beautiful animal, only wish I could load the video to instagram of him roaring his dominance. Managed to load some pics to instagram on @maththom27 but not quite to the standard on these blogs unfortunately.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Latest news is that the Anderson male has been seen scrapping with the Robson’s 4:4 male on the Southern bank of the Sand River. He’s definitely pushing south, which reinforces our belief that the Gowrie male is dead.
Some interesting times ahead..
Robson is a pretty small male, so he will run
Thank you for the update,James.
These are the biggest leopards I’ve ever seen. Hope to see them live.
Lizeka
James, curious to know what you thought of Tugwaan. When we saw him in 2012 he was the largest leopard we had seen to date (Gowrie was at that time an unidentified male on the property, I believe, and appeared much younger). When we returned in 2013 Tugwaan was quite elusive going onto MM property before we could get a good look at him. Then in 2014 we didn’t see him at all, and no one talked about him anymore. Having been there in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (hope to be back in 2016) we have been very fortunate to see many leopards, always great viewing at Londolozi.
Hi Deanna,
The Tugwaan male was always a favourite of mine, but sizewise he is not quite in the same league as the Camp Pan and Anderson males.
One of the reasons he began moving S and E was because of pressure from Camp Pan. As Camp Pan was pushed out by the Marthly male, there was a knock on effect and the Tugwaan male was pushed SE ahead of Camp Pan.
We actually saw the Tugwaan male about 2 weeks ago in the Dudley Riverbank area, which was thrilling, as I hadn’t seen him in about 18 months.
any idea abut tshololo ; is one of the leopard that was roaming malamala and Kim Wolhuter was filming its activities
Hi Raymond, sorry for later reply.
Tjololo died in October 2007, aged 14. He had been found injured by MM rangers and was darted to be treated by Kruger Park vets, but sadly did not recover after the antidote had been administered.
Hope that helps.