About a year ago we stumbled upon a newborn litter of the Mashaba female. I kick myself now as I didn’t have my camera on me, but the sight of three tiny, blind cubs that were probably only 24 hours old will stay in my memory forever. It struck me recently that at that moment, we may well have been viewing the youngest leopards in the world! That’s certainly quite a claim, but it’s not like there are millions of leopards out there, producing all the time
Newborn cubs of the Tutlwa female, circa. 2013.
The Mashaba female’s latest cub, although not 24 hours old when discovered, was certainly the youngest on Londolozi when we found it (that we know of), maybe in the Sabi Sand Reserve, and on an outside chance, maybe in the Kruger National Park. Out of a population estimated at being around 200, let’s say half are female, maybe two thirds of those are of breeding age, and that gives us about 700 females. A 10-day old cub (which we estimated it to be, as from appearances it had only just opened its eyes for the first time) is certainly amongst the smallest in the greater reserve.
None of this is particularly important; I just find it interesting.
A superb tracking effort by Tracker Academy trainer Innocent Ngwenya, in which he backtracked the Mashaba female for over two kilometres – found the den in a small undercut in the banks of the Maxabene Riverbed.
The Senegal Bush male has been seen at or near the den on a couple of occasions and the cub is still fine, which certainly wouldn’t be the case if he wasn’t the father, or at least didn’t think he was and hadn’t mated with the Mashaba female. The leopardess has since moved the cub to a different sitre a couple of hundred metres away that she has used previously. This den offers better seclusion for the cub which is fantastic, but visually it’s impossible to see either leopard if they are in there, which makes monitoring them slightly trickier.
Either way, after losing multiple litters of three over the last couple of years, we hope that this single cub might be the Mashaba female’s next success story since the Ximungwe female made it to independence…
The Mashaba female is currently Londolozi’s best-known leopard. Her relaxed nature means she is comfortable around the vehicles.
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
Let’s hope brave Mashaba Mum will be blessed with luck and her cub contributes to the precious Londolozi leopard lineage. Amazing and moving picture thanks
Hi James
Can you clarify the number of leopards – is it really only 200?
So great! I hope the mother will be able to bring up this little cub. It certainly helps if the cub is stowed well away in a secure spot.
James, I loved all the photos🤗
James, I do believe that Brent Leo Smith found Hosana and Xongile (Karula’s last litter of cubbies) in their den within 12 hours of their birth in Feb 2016. He had seen Karula the day before heavily pregnant and moving around the den site, and the next morning he went back and found them!
This is great news. Lets hope that the cub survive. Would there have been only this one cub, or did she have two and one died? Does leopards sometimes have only one cub?
Hi James. The baby looks remarkably bleary eyed at present and is obviously a very, very young arrival on Mother Earth! However, what a joy to see such a new baby on Londolozi! We wish Mom and Baby well. Thank you for the news! Wendy M
Best wishes for the Mashaba female and her leopard cub!! Please do keep us abreast of their progress!!
What an amazing discovery! Such a tiny cutie – it’s not surprising that young leopard cubs are so vulnerable. Let hope that Mashaba is successful at raising this little one!
Oh My goodnness woudness! Just adorable! Amazing captures James!
Let us hope that this precious little angel makes it to adulthood. Nice blog James. Thanks for sharing with us. Trust you are all well and staying safe.
Thank you James, what a special sighting! Hope the cub is safe and strong for many years and look forward to more photos of them together!
James, fabulous news and two amazing photos of this tiny fur ball. Rooting for Mashaba and her cub just as I did for the puppies of the wild dog pair. Did you mean 2000 leopards? That would make more sense….
Such a cute little cub! Love the pics!
Thanks for the update James – enchanting! Fingers and paws crossed that Mashaba has better luck with this litter.
Thank you for sharing the beauty of creation.
James, do you think this cub will be easy to habituate in terms of access or will the long stretch in between sightings of the Mashaba in the last few months be an indication of it being a tough habituation process? Also, any news on the Ndzandzeni Female?
Great news James! Let’s hope this cub makes it! We remember riding with you a few years ago and finding some super young cubs in the reeds. Can’t remeber which Leopard it was, but we were able to get a couple of peeks at the little ones!
Congratulations Innocent! great job…
Cute leopard cub