The Makomsava female has only recently been attracting the amorous attention of the area’s male leopards.
The only surviving cub of the Nanga female, currently territorial north of Marthly.
She was viewed attempting to mate with the Flat Rock male a month or two ago, but nothing seemed to come of it. Generally when a female is young, males realise – most likely through pheromones – that she is unlikely to conceive, and as a result the male leopard won’t want to waste his time mating with her.
A dominant male leopard over the majority of the north. He originally took over the 4:4 Male's territory when he died.
A couple of weeks ago, a sighting of the Makomsava female again with the Flat Rock male led us to believe that she is now possibly ready to have cubs. She is over three years old, so it is certainly possible that she could conceive soon.
Take a look at Ranger Guy Brunskill’s photos of her from the recent sighting of the pair:
Much like in the sighting of the Flat Rock male and Nhlanguleni female that we posted about a few days ago, the size difference between male and female leopards is very evident when they come together to mate, with the males being significantly larger…
According to Guy, the Flat Rock male seemed reluctant to mate at first, but relaxed his attitude towards the female as time went on.
However compliant the male is in mating though, it is still an aggressive interaction, with razor sharp claws of the female likely to lash out after each bout.
It is always a wonder to those lucky enough to observe leopards mating in the wild how they don’t do more damage to each other, given the apparent violence with which they interact…
This is the second leopardess that the Flat Rock male has been seen mating with in as many months, but he almost certainly won’t be the last that the females will seek out. In an effort to confuse the paternity of their cubs, they will follow and attempt to mate with as many males in the area as possible, so we can certainly expect to see similar scenes in the coming weeks.
Given her territory, we can predict that the Anderson and Hukumuri males will likely mate with the Makomsava female soon, and possibly even the Hosana male, although he might still be too young…
Makomsava is a beautiful leopard. We viewed her last year in September, interactimg with a hyena in the Manyelethi riverbed. It will be wonderful to see her cubs.
Have always wondered about the potential for injury while 2 are mating.
Good mews. The Flat Rock gets around. There must be some fairly large prides these days. James, which are the largest and how many string are they ? Thanks
James, I wonder how many the Flat Rock male will inceminate? I wonder if the Makomsava will have cubs?
Such snarling and clawing makes one wonder how this instinctive mating ever occurs! Hoping we will see new cubs in the future. Excellent images!
Looking forward to following this story, cracking photos
Wow and apparently the sounds are just as violent as the mating. Has someone caught this on video so we could listen?
Fingers crossed!! I suppose you can have too many leopard cubs, given all the dangers that they face when young. Thank you Victoria
Hopefully she will experience her first litter of cubs in the next few months. Seems to be difficult for a young female to find an agreeable mate.
I really hope she will be more successful at raising cubs than her mother..
Do you see much of her mother anymore or has she moved completely to the north of Londolozi?
Hello James. Is there a good chance that the Anderson male is the father of the Makomsava female?
When is Makhomsava going to be added to the Londolozi leopard data base? We saw her interact with one of the Nhulanguleni Young Females in early August. Also when is the Senegal Bush Male (Kunyuma) going to be added? We saw him interact with the Nkoveni Young Female in a fascinating moment….