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Nweti 4:2 Male

Nweti 4:2 Male

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Ximungwe 5:3 Female

Ximungwe 5:3 Female

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About the Author

James Tyrrell

Alumni

James had hardly touched a camera when he came to Londolozi, but his writing skills that complemented his Honours degree in Zoology meant that he was quickly snapped up by the Londolozi blog team. An environment rich in photographers helped him develop the ...

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18 Comments

on Ximungwe Female Leopard vs Nweti Male vs Civet Kitten (Civet Wins)

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Darlene Knott
Master Tracker

Amazing video, James! I think the leopards should be grateful they did not catch the civet. We saw a young leopard in Botswana who ate a civet. He was so sick! Mama had caught a warthog. When he felt better, he went back to her and stole the warthog from her! ?

James Tyrrell
Alumni

Hi Darlene, wow that sounds exciting! Civets are known for releasing for a substance they release from specialised glands, which I’ve heard they can do when threatened, so maybe both leopards recognised the possibility of getting tainted with it.

Gillian Evans
Explorer

Great story and great video work! Very rare to see two leopards and a civet!… Loved seeing the Ximungwe female leaping in and out of the dead tree. Is the Ximungwe female the leopard we previously knew as the Mashaba Young Female?

James Tyrrell
Alumni

Hi Gillian, yip that’s her. Have a look at this post that explains her name change: http://blog.londolozi.com/2018/03/14/introducing-the-ximungwe-female-leopard/

Carol Sturgeon
Explorer

So James, can you tell us a close pronunciation of her beautiful name??? She is a very pretty leopard!

Ian Hall
Master Tracker

Some sighting, as you say lucky civet (civet was one of my late mother’s favourite words when playing scrabble) . They are the sort of creature I have rarely seen – after all how often do small carnivores such as civets feature on the Londolozi blog?

James Tyrrell
Alumni

Hi Ian, funny you should ask as recently I’ve been seeing more of them than usual. Three in two night drives, and in the sighting in question there were actually three civet kittens (the other two ran off with their mum, while the one in the story ran the wrong way).
There are lots of them out there as we see their tracks daily, they just happen to be shy so we don’t encounter the actual creatures all that often.

Mary Beth Wheeler
Master Tracker

Fun story, James! Lucky civet!

James Tyrrell
Alumni

VERY lucky civet!

Denise Vouri
Guest contributor

Now that’s a sighting! How fascinating that neither leopard wanted to get muddy or wet in pursuit of the kitten. Didn’t realize they were that “prissy “.

James Tyrrell
Alumni

Hi Denise.
Haha that’s certainly what it looked like to us, but it might have also been partly that the civet didn’t look like a good meal. Who knows?

Chelsea Allard
Master Tracker

Such a cool sighting!

Wendy Hawkins
Senior Digital Ranger

Oh that was just wonderful to hear & see that the muddy civet managed a quick escape & capture – a very happy ending 🙂 Thank you James your pictures are stunning 🙂

Vicky
Digital Ranger

Another of those amazing sitings! All I could think was ‘poor civet’. I guess we’ll never know why it didn’t make a break for it while the two leopards were running toward and up the marula.

Anym V
Explorer

Never knew about Civet cats before today. Looks cute for a pet. It reminded me abit of a badger until I saw it scampering out of the water!

Callum Evans
Master Tracker

What a unique sighting, combining a leopard kill, a leopard interaction and one of the most rarely seen nocturnal carnivores. Don’t think I’ve seen any civet photos on the Blog!

Marinda Drake
Master Tracker

Amazing sighting. The Ximungwe female is as beautiful as I remember. Lucky escape for the civet.

Joanne Wadsworth Kelley
Master Tracker

How could I have missed this interesting story about my most favorite leopard of all….Ximungwe….with a big nod to Tony Goldman who introduced me when she was much younger and called the Mashaba Young Female. She certainly got her good looks from her mum. Consequently it is extra special (and with a bit of selfish pride to boot), for me to watch this excellent video of the civet stand off/lounge-around and the other male leopard encounter. The Ximunge fan in me grinned when you mentioned he only got scraps. After all, we girls must stick together! Lol…

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