Involved Leopards

Robson's 4:4 Male

Robson's 4:4 Male

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Piva 3:2 Male

Piva 3:2 Male

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Flat Rock 3:2 Male

Flat Rock 3:2 Male

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Anderson 4:4 Male

Anderson 4:4 Male

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Inyathini 3:3 Male

Inyathini 3:3 Male

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About the Author

Callum Gowar

Field Guide

Growing up in Cape Town, the opposite end of South Africa from its main wildlife areas, didn't slow Callum down when embarking on his ranger training at Londolozi at the start of 2015. He had slowly begun moving north-east through the country anyway, ...

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21 Comments

on David amongst Goliaths: The 4:4 Male

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They are such magnificent animals, and each loss saddens us.

Thanks Vicky. They are indeed incredible animals and is always saddening to see one pass away, especially after generating somewhat of a personal bond with each individual.

Alex
Guest

Great blog,the 4:4 male was able to maintain such a large territory because his neighbours all had fairly large territories themselves and no one really pushed him.In 2012-2013 he tried to set up a territory in Simbambili,but when Anderson arrived around mid 2013 he was chased immediately from the north.He got lucky with the demise of the Marthly male and later with the death of the Gowrie male and got a big piece of land without really fighting for it.If i remember correctly,around sept 2015 after the Gowrie male died the 4:4 male met Anderson around the Sand River and he fled,so he wasn’t the one to fight a bigger male to protect his land and his females(Mashaba had small cubs at the time).In my opinion he got lucky,did well to patrol a big territory but wasn’t really pushed, with Piva expanding east,Inyathini also expanding SE and Anderson already with a huge territory slowly expanding in all directions.With time,i have no doubt that 4:4 male’s territory would have got progressively smaller.

A big thanks for your extremely informative and helpful response to this post. It is great to receive a different perspective. Kind regards

Thanks for the update and clarification.
Can you tell me anything about the Ndzanzeni female?

Hi Vin. Good to hear from you and thanks for your words. She is doing fine and so is her young male cub now approaching one year old. She has regularly been seen exploring the deep south-eastern parts of our property where the Inyathini male is seen.

The 4:4 male was so beautiful and a sad loss indeed. A wonderful tribute to such an incredible Leopard, Callum, and a great blog and stunning pictures of the beautiful male Leopards of Londolozi!

Many thanks for your kind words Jill.

Lynne
Guest

Thank you for a very interesting story on the magnificent leopards at Londolozi.

Thank you for reading Lynne.

Senior Digital Ranger

Thanks for all the useful info. Guess the “Leopards of Londolozi” section needs to be updated as the Robson’s 4:4 male timeline (from July 2017) still states “As far as we know Robson’s 4:4 Male continues to survive and is roaming the Londolozi reserve.”

Thanks Marc,
We overlooked that, will update asap.

Great article Callum and awesome shots of Anderson. The dynamics are fascinating. Can wait to get back in April.

Many thanks Sid. We are incredibly privileged to follow these beautiful animals on a daily basis.

A great article .4:4 and the legendary Dudley RiverBank were two small yet impressive males its always nice to read about these either of these deceased beloved leopards .Thank you for this piece If I am not wrong Mashaba young female is the daughter of 4:4 male .Has she been given a new name yet ?

Trevor Patrick
Guest

Great blog Callum. How lucky am I that my favourite place on this planet has so many Leopards its a challenge keeping up with events. Its really difficult not to become attached to them but it really hurts when the law of nature takes its toll.

Farsi
Guest

hey
great blog
came across it when looking for the differences between leopards and cheetahs. It would be great if you could explain what the numbers given to each leopard mean. thanks

Hi Farsi,

Check out these two links to understand the spot patterns:

http://blog.londolozi.com/2012/04/11/how-to-identify-individual-leopards/
http://leopards.londolozi.com/about/

Regards

Thanks for the update Cal, great to see a story on these impressive male leopards.

Great shot and stories!!! Any “bull nose” seen. How’s the wedding plans going?
Ron & Kay of the Londoloonies

Just reading this post has me now wondering: is this where the current dynamic fluctutations within the leopard population at Londolozi began (and what the Piva’s male’s death escalated)? Again, lions were the culprit (as with the Piva male and Xidulu female, if my memories right).

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