It’s a beautiful thing winning the trust of a wild animal, especially one as enigmatic and vulnerable as a leopard cub.
It’s certainly not that they begin to trust you, but that they realise this big green thing trundling about their environment with funny clicking noises coming out of it is not a threat, and they can continue about their business with relative impunity (I’m talking about the Land Rover, FYI).
It can be a relatively short process; some cubs differ massively in temperament and there are a few that are unfazed by the Land Rovers practically from Day 1. Others – like the Piccadilly female’s cub we are currently viewing in the north of Londolozi – take a little longer.
A cub not fully relaxed around the Land Rovers slinks low to the ground when it crosses any kind of open space.
It’s only been since the early parts of Lockdown that we started viewing the Piccadilly female with any kind of regularity, but in the last few months she has pushed deeper and deeper into Londolozi, and yesterday we saw her as far west as we ever have, beyond the Londolozi camps even. Her cub had been left only a short way behind her, being stashed for the day while the mother went hunting.
The Piccadilly female has been establishing herself more firmly in Londolozi’s northern reaches.
A rough idea of the Piccadilly female’s territory. The red spot is where the sighting discussed below began, and the black spot is where the cub was left. The Londolozi camps are south of the river, below the black spot.
A sighting of a mother leopard with a nervous cub on the move through dense thickets is tricky. You have to balance keeping the leopards in sight, trying to get your guests the occasional good view for a photograph, yet remain at a distance at which the cub doesn’t feel threatened. Many is the time you will lose sight of the leopards completely, sometimes for minutes at a time, and only anticipation and healthy dose of luck allows you to find them again; a slight deviation in their course while they are moving through a dense Gwarrie thicket and you’ll never find them.
We were fortunate enough to spend well over an hour with the Piccadilly female and her cub as she led it away from where she had been keeping it for the previous three or four days. Timing was on our side and we found the pair just before sunrise as they were just about to enter the thickets. Two minutes later and we’d have missed them completely.
From there it was a constant tightrope walk of trying to enjoy the viewing while not scaring the cub. There was a real thrill in seeing how over the course of the morning the cub gradually relaxed. Although it was never completely at ease, always casting furtive glances in our direction, it was visibly more comfortable with the vehicle by the time we left it.
Although right next to its mother, the cub continues to watch us from the banks of the Manyelethi Riverbed.
When moving into a clearing, the cub would often position itself on the far side of its mother.
The view we had been hoping for all morning was mother and cub in the sands of the Manyelethi riverbed, but it was not to be as a Russet Bushwillow that had been pushed over by an elephant blocked our access down into the river, but James Souchon, watching with his guests from a high vantage point just to our south, had an amazing view of the pair moving across the exposed sand.
We weren’t down on the sand near them as we would have hoped, but it was still a stunning view.
Apparently it was his guests’ first time seeing a leopard, and I simply can’t have imagined a more spectacular first sighting. I’m actually glad we didn’t manage to access the river, as seeing James’s photo of the two leopards in that pristine spot made me realise how much more special it was that there wasn’t a Land Rover in the background.
Quite a view of your first leopard!!
From the head size to body ratio, the cub looks like a female.
Some cubs are relaxed at three months, some never fully relax around the vehicles. As amazing as it can be to watch very young and already-habituated cubs doing their thing around a den or a fallen tree while their mother looks on, personally I find the reward of viewing an unrelaxed leopard – be it cub or even an adult – and slowly having the sighting become better and better because of careful management, far more satisfying.
Lovely sighting of the leopards in the river. It is so exciting to see a leopard for the first time.
James, I loved all the photos🤗
Amazing. My first leopard cub sighting was outstanding. Very Very similar to this experience except in the end they found a small water hole and both drank out of it as we gazed on in utter disbelief.
The Piccadilly Female is very special to us. She and her sister Sibyue were the first leopard cubs we ever saw in 2014. We were fortunate to spend 2 hours with them and their Mom Kikilezi. Then in 2018 we saw her with her male cub. We spent an evening, he was very relaxed. Unfortunately he disappeared shortly thereafter. I do hope she can raise this one to independence safely. She is a love.
Wow, what a ‘first sighting’ of a leopard for those guests! Amazing indeed! Leopards are my favorites!
Great story James! The habituation process and the ultimate success by your team is a testament to the patience the the ranger team and conservation protocols in place at Londolozi!
I’m sure animals know it’s humans in the landrover – like tigers in India they are well acquainted and habituated with all sorts of vehicles and people. It’s almost moving as wild animals such as big cats are persecuted for their beautiful fur or bones.
Wonderful seeing the two leopards cross the sands in that huge expanse of greens and gold!
Great sighting of the Piccadilly female and her cub. I tend to agree with you that non-habituated leopards can be more interesting to view, although that being said, I would certainly appreciate a leopard to come up to the Land Rover and just sit with us!
Thanks for clarifying the habituation process–I had actually never thought about how it happened.
Great pictures of mother and cub.
I would give my eye teeth to see a leopard and her cub !!! How wonderfully special for your guests 🙏💕
Magical!!!!!
Seeing leopards and cubs in the wild never ever ever becomes ordinary or mundane. Truly one of the most wonderful experiences you can have.
What a wonderful sighting! Any ideas why the Piccadilly female is shifting her territory – surely that’s a risky venture with a cub?
Hi James. We go along with your thinking. Acclimatizing a young Leopard must be MUCH more rewarding! This would apply to any youngster actually. We wish the Mom and Youngster everything of the best at Londolozi! Thanks for the pics, James. Keep them coming! Wendy M
Fabulous! thank you Victoria
The habituation process is something I find absolutely incredible to see documented (I unfortunately have not been in the bush in person to have any firsthand knowledge of it, though I would love to be a ranger doing just that one day), and to see the transformation of a leopard or any animal from a naturally-nervous animal into a relaxed being is so incredible and rewarding I’m sure for the rangers and their guests who put in so much effort and patience into doing so. Hopefully the cub (who I’m assuming has yet to be sexed?) will relax in time as the Nhlanguleni Female did over time (if I’m not mistaken she and her brother were never relaxed as cubs but she eventually became used to them).
Very cool post James! As fascinating as it was informative (which is completely par for the course for you all at Londolozi!), and what a treat to see the pair in the riverbed for you and the lucky guests!