About the Author

Pete Thorpe

Alumni Ranger

Pete was a Field Guide for Londolozi for 4 years, contributing to the blog as a fantastic writer as well as photographer. Right from his very first bush trip at the age of four, Pete was always enthralled by this environment. Having grown ...

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41 Comments

on Never Before Recorded Footage Of a Male Leopard Carrying a Cub

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Incredible. It is amazing that the little cub is still alive. The wildlife sightings at Londolizi never seize to amaze. It is now better than ever.

Fascinating footage! Any guess what may have happened had the mother not shown up so quickly?

Senior Digital Ranger

Another wondrous and mysterious Londolozi observance stamped with Nature’s Questionmark! Holding our breath yet again!!

Thank you so much Pete Thorpe

Wow it is good that the leopard cub didn’t get killed, Phew (as far as you know)

WOW!! That is fascinating. Can I ask did you personally record that interaction? FABULOUS!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂

Why should the male kill a cub that’s his own offspring? Perhaps he is acting in a paternal way, maybe sharing his odour with the cub, especially in a high leopard-dense area… Anyway it is an incredible video and I’m thrilled of it. I have always tried not to stereotype animals behaviour. Great!

Senior Digital Ranger

Wow,that is just amazing footage! Hope the cub is safe.

Remarkable! – whatever next? Is this the 1st time she’s only had 1 cub; she seemed over the last few years to be specialising in triplets.

Oh gosh I sure hope the cub is OK. So amazing that Kunyuma was so involved. But him carrying the cub away again is concerning. Poor Mashaba.

Incredible events and sightings are happening during the Covid 19 confinement… Wild dogs, honey badger, cape otter, leopard male & cub, and more, are creating incredible stories. Enjoy my ranger friends! you do deserve it. But I start wondering whether you are REALLY looking forward to see us back at Londolozi !!!

Whoa, this is absolutely amazing. Seriously hope all is well with the little cub, fingers crossed, the little one is so young. Thank you so much for uploading and hopefully we will see them again. 👍💞

Fascinating! I hope he’s more interested in helping to raise it (how cool would that be?) and doesn’t kill it. Stranger things have happened.

Senior Digital Ranger

Ohhhh no! Another gripping story… amazing behavior… praying!

Amazing footage – another interesting and heart wrenching story! I so hope the outcome is positive and that the cub is still alive.

Incredible footage! I hope that the story has, ultimately, a happy ending. I know you’ll keep us posted!

What a report on these sightings! Unbelievable to see the Senegal Bush male carrying the cub- I’ve never seen this in any of the documentaries I’ve watched over the years. It seems if he was aggressive he would have killed the cub immediately….. giving us cause to believe he possesses a paternal side. I can only hope his fascination with this little fluff ball does/did not lead to the jaws of death. I’ll be waiting for the update!!

Amazing footage!!! Frightening though that the mother reacted so violently the last time he had taken the cub from the den. I fear the cub may be gone. He or she cannot survive long without feeding. Keep us updated.

Luckily the Mashaba female was two minutes behind the male. Hopefully she would have caught up with him and retrieved the cub again. We are trying to stay optimistic at this stage, but haven’t had any answers yet.

I will try to be optimistic too, but I do have strong doubts. The Senegal Bush make was acting very strangely!

Wow! That was amazing! Thank you

That is very interesting behaviour from the Senegal Bush Male. Let’s hope he didn’t do any harm to the cub.

I wonder what the motivation behind Kunyuma/Senegal Bush Male moving the cub was? I would think that him not instantly killing the cub is a good sign, but it’s confusing as to what his intentions may have been

We are equally confused, Michael. Only time will tell really!

Wow, incredible video. Please keep us posted as to the outcome, if possible!

Thanks. We definitely will, Paul.

Digital Ranger

Hope the cub is somewhere safe with the Mashaba female!

Pete, This is just incredible. We know how males can be so deadly to cubs unless they “think” they are theirs. It seems that if he wanted to kill the cub, he could have done it easily. Mashaba’s “quick slash” was impressive! We’ve seen her in action before and she is clearly respected by Senegal! We pray that Mashaba gets to see this cub through. Maybe Senegal will help protect mom and cub? No telling how many more litters Mashaba will have…. We look forward to more updates!

The Mashaba female has been rather productive on the cub front in her time. It seems Senegal Bush has been spending an unusual amount of time in the vicinity of the den without having killed the cub (that we know of). Fascinating times…

what an incredible thing to see!! who knew male leopards had paternal instincts. Gives you goosebumps!! Victoria

great reporting 👏 ..very interesting. Being part of Londolizi productions in the early years, I found the leopards especially the Mother Leopard fascinating to watch and document…this is certainly strange and interesting behaviour from the male. will be interesting to watch what happens in the future.

Thanks Dianne.

The Tortoise Pan male and The Ndzanzeni female are the two surviving descendants of the Mother Leopard. We haven’t seen much of them, but following these lineages is really quite fascinating. Look out for a story involving three generations of leopard plus others all in one sighting coming out soon.

great work Pete!

What an amazing behavior of the male. I do hope that you will soon find answers to the questions regarding this male and the tiny pub. Is it possible that such behavior has just never been recorded so far because there haven’t been any cameras or witnesses?

Hi Christa,

Yes, there is a high chance that is the case. Even though the safari industry collectively gathers a wealth of observations on a daily basis, the amount of time we spend with any individual is still a tiny percentage of each week. There is so much that goes by unseen out here. Had it not been for the trail camera, we would have had no idea that the Senegal Bush male carried the cub the second time around.

Hope to see all the Leopards next year where we come.

Senior Digital Ranger

This was amazingly Beautiful this did surprise me with a male leopard carrying this small cub and for the mother not to flip out and also the male not to kill the cub. Also what made my heart melt is they were all laying down next each other like a family. Thank You for the update and Thank You for making my day and that not all but some animals that do have different personalities and the do have feelings of love…

Spectacular sight. Hope the cub is found alive and growing.

Digital Ranger

That is a very unusual behavior indeed exhibited from a male Leopard. Is the cub a male or a female? They normally tend to kill males more than females in the Lion world. For Leopards am not that sure.

Amazing spotting

Any update on the cub? Seems he killed it.

Sadly, the cub was never seen again and so it is very likely that he killed it.

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