Textbooks can be necessarily vague when it comes to giving facts and figures about wild animals, and when looking up the age of leopard independence, one will generally read that they split from their mothers at around 18-24 months. While this is a relatively common age for them to start going solo, it can in fact be much earlier than this, or even much later.
Leopards at Londolozi have been recorded being fully independent from the age of 11 months, and leopards elsewhere have been seen still heavily dependent on their mothers at about 3 years of age. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s not fixed, and at the moment, the Mashaba young female is slowly starting to show signs of doing her own thing.
Londolozi's oldest territorial female. Distinguished by her nose spot, this Sunsetbend matriarch's legacy lives on through her daughters.
The Mashaba young female climbed this dead Ivory tree and then struggled to get down. This was a few months ago, and by now her climbing skills are far more improved.
Left alone by her mother for longer and longer periods of time, she has been found on many occasions recently simply wandering about by herself. She will attempt to stalk small animals, climb the odd tree, and generally indulge the innate curiosity to be found in leopard cubs of this age (she is just over a year old now).
I am by no means saying she is about to up and wander off overnight, I am simply relating the fact that the change is slowly starting to become apparent.
Groomed by her mother, the Mashaba young female watches some monkeys in the tree tops. Tolerance from her mother will start to decline as she approaches independence.
Slightly overzealous play will often result in a stern rebuke from her mother…
Generally what will happen with the Mashaba female and her daughter is that the adult will leave the cub in order to go hunting. Since the cub can survive for awhile without food, her mother can afford to leave her for a couple of days if needs be. If the Mashaba female is succesful in bringing down a prey animal, she will stash the kill and return to where she left her daughter to fetch her to the carcass.
Given that the cub has started exploring independently, she will often not be in the exact spot at which she was left. The Mashaba female will have to call for her; softly grunting at first, and if the cub doesn’t respond, eventually building up into the full roar we usually associate with territorial calling. This loud sawing call will almost certainly be loud enough to reach the cub’s ears, as she will probably not have strayed too far.
Mother and cub stare at each other along the length of a Marula trunk. How long will the bond last…?
As the cub reaches full independence, her mother will become less and less tolerant of her presence, especially around a kill, and eventually she will just not go and fetch her. The cub will have to realise that her mother is not returning and will be forced to start moving around and hunting for herself. She will most likely have the luxury of being tolerated in her mother’s territory for another year or so, but where she goes after that is anyone’s guess.
The aggression from the Mashaba young female towards her mother can be seen in this photo. Eventually, the Mashaba female will become completely intolerant of her cub at kills, forcing her into full independence.
The Mashaba female herself does not have a great deal of territory to cede off, and the areas to the east, west and north are firmly occupied by the Nkoveni, Nhlanguleni and Tutlwa females respectively. To the south is a bit of space, although we know the Tatowa female rears her head there from time to time. The Tatowa female herself was forced to disperse far from her mother’s territory as there were no real vacancies adjacent to it, and it is certainly possible that we will see the Mashaba young female being forced to do the same thing in the years to come…
HI JAMES,
THANKS FOR THE GREAT BLOG.
I JUST WANT TO SEE THEM TOGETHER ONE MORE TIME IN JULY, THEN THEY CAN SPLIT!
I AM VERY ATTACHED TO MASHABA AND HAVE WATCHED HER FOR A FEW YEARS NOW AND SHE HAS BEEN A GOOD MOTHER.
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL SOON.
KIND REGARDS,
TED.
Great story thanks. We had a great sighting of the two in action while there a few weeks ago. It was an amazing encounter whereby patience paid off as we waited close to an hour to see the two fight it out and then kiss and make up shortly after. Just beautiful!
It’s been really incredible watching this little cub over the past year, growing into such a strong, confident adult. Her mother has taken very good care of her and hopefully she has learnt everything well that Mashaba has taught her. I’m hoping she has a long and healthy life.