I don’t have too many recent photos to suggest that the Nkoveni female might be heavily pregnant. That’s mainly because I have only seen her twice in the last two or three months, and both times were in long grass.
From being probably the most viewed leopard on Londolozi the Nkoveni female’s status has changed to that of seldom-seen, and it may be that she has relinquished a large portion of her former territory.
The Nkoveni female has been straying far outside of her usual territory in order to mate. Here, after a mating bout with the Flat Rock male, she catches sight of the resident Nhlanguleni female and immediately after this photo was taken, slunk away into the reeds.
We know she has been spending a lot of time to the east of Londolozi, mating with both the Senegal Bush Male and an unknown and relatively skittish male who we presume has ventured in from the Kruger Park. Her movements may have been largely due to her actively seeking out these males, but in some part they be a partial ceding of territory to her daughter. The Nkoveni young female has been moving though all her mother’s old haunts – drainage lines, thickets and the like – although at less than two years of age (she was born in April 2018) – she has yet to display any properly territorial behaviour.
It has been a long while since we saw the Nkoveni young female with her mother.
Young leopards like her tend not to move along typical routes that territorial adults would; it’s not often you’ll find them moving down a prominent game path or road for an extended period of time. They seem to be very much aware of the lower rung on the leopard totem pole that they occupy, and remain even more unobtrusive than the more mature individuals of their species would. Their movements tend to be erratic and they pop up in the most unlikely of places.
I digress. The Nkoveni female is the one we’re talking about. So yes she’s been seen less and less. She was reported as getting into a big fight with the Piccadilly female when trespassing on her territory in company with the Senegal Bush male, but latest sightings of her confirm she came out of the encounter relatively unscathed (as we are led to believe the Piccadilly female did too).
The photo above was the last time I saw her, about a week ago. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a leopard scent mark that frequently; she was spraying on pretty much every marula tree she passed, and she was walking a direct line from west to east. She would give her territorial rasp every few minutes as well. When female leopards do this, it is often a good indication that they are pregnant, and they want to reinforce their territorial boundaries, making sure that rivals are fully aware that the area is occupied.
Ranger Melvin Sambo recently found her north of the Sand River, showing signs that she was lactating. Since then she has again been viewed mating with the Senegal Bush male to the east of Londolozi. This doesn’t mean too much, as females will still mate when they are pregnant; the more males they mate with the more confused the paternity becomes and the more likely the cubs will be to survive.
We’ll be watching this space with interest…
It is great news if she is pregnant. It is always lovely to have cubs around.
No viewings of Nkoveni female last week. although we saw the Nkoveni Young Female 2x.
Exactly! She’s been very scarce…
It sounds as if she is either pregnant, or else has been trying hard to be pregnant again. Very interesting. Keep us updated on this, James, will you? Wendy M
James, we will be there in 2020.
Hope she still has cubs with her
So do we!!
Good strategy, to mate with as many males as possible, so that the males all assume the cubs are theirs and will leave them alone.
What a fascinating blog entry, James! Looking forward to a follow up!
How do all of you keep track of who’s who in the zoo (so to speak) with litters coming with such frequency across so very many potential mothers? And determining who of all their “partners” is the father much be a real puzzle! We had thought that the number of potential males was dwindling but venturing beyond Londolozi certainly expands the gene pool. Do you work with neighboring Ranger groups to keep these things straight?
Yes we are in contact with other rangers in neighbouring reserves to keep track of what’s happening.
Knowing the paternity is unfortunately impossible without a DNA test since the females mate with multiple males. Occasionally we will see a female only mating with one male, so have a fair idea of the likelihood, but in this instance the Nkoveni female has mated with at least 3 males that we know of, which fogs the issue somewhat…
So good to learn that yet another leopard may be in the family way. Londolozi seems to be the billboard for successful breeding and subsequent raising of cubs to adulthood, save for the random killing of cubs by unrelated males i.e. Tortoise Pan killing Mashaba’s cubs….. will be waiting for the next installment.
looks good
Hopefully she’ll give birth soon! Which Londolozi leopards are currently the most successful at rearing cubs?
The original Mother Leopard apparently raised 12 to independence. Almost unheard of…