Those of you familiar with the Leopards of Londolozi will know that we ascribe a name to each individual upon their becoming an adult. An ‘adult’ leopard, at least for us, is considered to be when he or she is not only fully independent of their mother but also showing clear and obvious signs of becoming – or at least attempting to become – territorial in a particular area.
Recently three young females have reached this independent stage in their lives, and the time has come to assign each of them an area/feature-based name.
The Ranger/Tracker Team comes together to put forward their suggested names for these leopards and eventually decide on a suitable one that either represents an area in which they are often seen or a feature of their behaviour, appearance or landscape in which they spend their time.
The Nhlanguleni young females a few months ago, on the move, side by side. We hardly ever see these siblings together any more indicating that they have reached full independence.
Firstly, the Nhlanguleni female has done an outstanding job in raising two young females to this point. This is the first complete litter to reach adulthood at Londolozi since 2012 when the Nhlanguleni female herself and her male sibling gained their independence under the care of the Tutlwa female.
An enigmatic female not often encountered, this leopard lives to the north of the Sand River.
Initially skittish she spent a lot of time in the Sand River, now relaxed she makes up the majority of leopard viewing west of camp.
During the same time the Nkoveni female, on the opposite side of the Londolozi camps, was also raising a young female. Both litters were born within a month of each other (March and April 2018, respectively) after the arrival of the Flat Rock male who at the time killed the previous litters of both these mothers and went on to – we suspect – father both these successful litters.
The Nkoveni young female on the right – roughly a year ago – drinks alongside her mother from one of the many summer-time wallows.
With the Nhlanguleni female being territorial directly west of our camps and the Nkoveni female being territorial directly east of our camps, we have been provided with some amazing moments watching these leopards grow from tiny cubs to independent adults. Over the last couple of months, both the Nhlanguleni and Nkoveni females themselves have pushed themselves further west and east respectively, not only to begin their renewed search for dominant males to mate with, but also to cede a portion of their own territory to their offspring – a behaviour often witnessed in the case of females raising females. This has afforded us the chance to continue viewing these three young leoaprds as they find their feet in the complex dynamics of leopard territories at Londolozi.
A gorgeous female who is found to the east of camp. Easily recognised by her 2:2 spot pattern she is often to be found in Marula trees.
So without further ado, I present to you the newest independent leopards of Londolozi…
Nhlanguleni Young Female (a) becomes the NKUWA Female
This leopard initially began to spend less time with her mother around July/August of 2019. However she and her sibling we hardly ever seen apart until late October/November when they began to show clear signs of full independence. Like many other leopardscurrently on the reserve, she has a simple 3:3 spot pattern.
Upon closer inspection one will notice that the 3 spots on the leopard’s right side are arranged unevenly with the rear two spots being slightly larger, closer together and further back on her cheek. She has begun establishing herself along our western boundary, both north and south of the Sand River. This section of the river features a number of spectacular Sycamore Figs, a tree one doesn’t often see leopards in, but in a few stunning sightings of this leopard, we have. We therefore settled on the name of Nkuwa which is the local Tsonga (Shangaan) word for a Sycamore Fig.
The Nkuwa female sits perched up on a boulder overlooking the Sand River. If you have a close look you will notice her asymmetrical spot pattern.
Nhlanguleni Young Female (b) becomes the FINFOOT Female
Following an identical path to independence to her sibling above, this young female seems to have settled in the eastern side of her mothers territory, stretching from the camps further west towards where we find her sister, also occupying both sides of the river. She is also a 3:3 patterned female with three very symmetrical, straight spots horizontally next to each other on both cheeks. The area that she roams is centred around one of the main crossing points through the Sand River which we refer to as Finfoot Crossing (after a rare bird species that has been seen here a couple of times) and so we duly named her the Finfoot female.
The Finfoot female draped over the top of a termite mound. Her more symmetrical spot pattern quite evident above the whisker-line.
Nkoveni Young Female – Plaque Rock Female
This leopard was born into a litter of two but lost her sibling at a very early age. However, since then, all has gone smoothly for the Nkoveni female and her cub. Spending the majority of her early life in her mother’s territory along the southern banks of the river to the east of the Londolozi camps, we started to see this young female on her own more often from around August of 2019. Also being a somewhat symmetrical 3:3 female, she can be distinguished from the Finfoot female by her significantly darker nose. With her mother having seemingly shifted her territory east, her daughter has become a regular feature among the prominent boulders downstream from the Causeway. A particularly well known landmark on the reserve is a large, flat granite boulder on the southern bank of the river known to us as Plaque Rock. Today, this area is central to this young female leopard’s movements and therefore couldn’t be better suited as her name.
A rather ironic photo of the Nkoveni female and her 3 month old cub sitting upon Plaque Rock – the landmark that would later inspire the name of the young female.
The Plaque Rock female stalking and pouncing on some small prey in the dense summer vegetation.
Yet another successful generation of leopards at Londolozi begin their journey into adulthood. Hopefully we continue to see these three animals thrive and add to the legacy of their lineages in years to come.
Dear Chris,
thank you for that good news about the leopards.Great shot of Finfoot.
Its really a perfect name Plaque Rock female- I saw both in that situation in July 2018, last year we were looking for them.
Looking forward for July 2020.
We saw all 3 of these gorgeous girls in early August 2019. Finfoot and Nkuwa we’re feeding with their mama and Flat Rock in an Nyala in the river bed. Plaque Rock was alone in a tree with her carcass and then chased off by Kunyuma! I really hope that all 3 females continue to thrive and eventually dominate their areas!
The Nkuwa and Finfoot females are two of my favorite Londolozi leopards and two of the prettiest in the Sabi Sands, IMO. So happy that they and the Plaque Rock Female have names and will continue the Leopards of Londolozi story. Chris, will there be a map of the respective females’ (these three) territories on the Leopards of Londolozi website for future reference?
Also curious if the females’ scat could be collected for DNA testing? I believe there is some study going on that tests scat for paternity. Would be interesting if Flat Rock was indeed the father or if another male managed to sire the cubs.
Thank you Chris, it’s wonderful to see these young females flourishing. I saw all these as cubs on my trip late Sep ’18, so it’s particularly interesting for me. The 2 Nhlanguleni cubs were with their mother, taking it in turns to feed off a kill. Alfie had no sooner said “she’ll need to hoist that kill soon” when a large hyena rushed in and stole it! I’ve just dug out my photos so I can see which cub is which. Later that week we were treated to an incredible sighting when Nkoveni and her cub played in a fallen tree – Alfie called it 1 of his best sightings ever! I was fortunate enough to see her again last September when she was newly independent. It’s such a privilege to able to follow their history. Question for you – is Tortoise Pan still on Londolozi, haven’t heard anything about him for a while.
I think this post may add to my own Londolozi story. My second visit to Londolozi was in May 2018, and after a couple days it became apparent that a lot of leopard cub action had been among the goings on. Our guide/tracker knew both that we were interested in such a rare sighting, and that we had heard rumblings around camp about such activity. As a result we spent good portions of a few drives (w/o success, but not w/o trying) checking what was described as “common” leopard denning sites in areas along the Sand a River that sound a lot like areas you described in this post. One East of camp could be described as a weathered drainage at the top of the south shore of the Sand River which now sounds like it may have been used at the time by the Nkoveni female. The other two were East of camp along the north side of the Sand River. One was a hundred meters or so north of shore of the river in a clump of boulders. The other was another weathered drainage forming a short tributary to the Sand River (a search interrupted by a surprise appearance of the Anderson Male in the river bed itself). Obvious speculation after reading this message is that these were denning sites used at time by the Nhlanguleni female who now appears to have a new litter. While I’m sure we inquired about these mother leoapard names at the time, the lack of a sighting lead their names to fade with time in memory. So in this context, aside from the normal pleasure I get reading this blog, today’s post had that extra selfishly attractive quality of hitting close to home. Thank you for the write up.
Chris, I hope to see all theses leopards when we are there in 2020 – we are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.
So wonderful to see three successful female leopards moving out on their own. Thanks for sharing, Chris!
We have enjoyed leopard “history” since out first visit in 2013. An interesting historical perspective is in the book, “The Leopards of Londolozi” by Lez Hes first published in 1991. (Film of choice: Kodachrome 64–how things have changed!)
Lex Hes
Thanks Chris – we look forward to following the progress of this new generation of beautiful female Leopards.
Congratulations to these beautiful leopards, long life to them all.
Fascinating to learn how your leopards are named. Out of curiosity, if one of these Londolozi named leopards wanders into MM or Singita, are they given a name representing a territory there? Also, is the Senagal Bush male Nhlanguleni’s brother? I read the Tutlwa female raised two cubs to adulthood, Nhlanguleni being one….. thanks for the update. As an aside, wouldn’t it be interesting if the Tortoise Pan male was to mate with one of the newly independent females? That would be a story!!
Very nicely done Chris!!!
Thank you Chris! Always a wonderful thing when you name new leopards who have made it to be territorial.
Beautiful pictures of beautiful cats! Is the male leopard called Hosana ever in Londolozi?
o wow. Thanx for sharing this info!!
Thanks Chris, great job!