After managing to elude us for a while, the Nkoveni Female is back and has provided us with some exceptional sightings of late. Having successfully raised her two female cubs to a year now we have been incredibly lucky to have numerous spectacular sightings of the three of them over the last year. On a recent morning drive, a few of the team and their guests took no notice of the constant drizzle while they were overjoyed watching the trio playing together on a fallen over Marula Tree.
Just enough room for three on this fallen-over Marula tree. The Nkoveni Female and her two cubs take in their surroundings during the morning drizzle while the onlookers are treated to another spectacular sighting of this trio.
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.
As it goes, I wasn’t a part of that sighting that morning but a few mornings later myself, tracker Bennett Mathonsi and our guests were taken by surprise when a tower of giraffe lead us to yet another memorable morning with the Nkoveni Female. This time, however, she wasn’t with her two younger daughters but instead reunited with her eldest daughter – the Plaque Rock Female. I use the word reunited loosely as this was not quite the friendly encounter you would imagine but rather a reminder of where the territorial boundary between mother and daughter lies.
One of the giraffes staring down into the long grass revealing the Plaque Rock Female and her mother, the Nkoveni Female just a few meters further ahead.
A pretty young playful female found along the river to the east of camp
The low rumble of their growling continued in between scraping of their hind paws through the grass to re-establish who is dominant in this particular area. Thinking the daughter would surely be submissive to her mother, the Plaque Rock Female suddenly bounded out of the long grass towards her mother and they both chased after each other across the crest ahead. Myself and rangers Kirst Joscelyne and Jess Shillaw eagerly followed to see what would happen next. Would they battle it out? Who would come out on top? At this stage the adrenaline was peaking and in-between the awes of silence from my guests the questions started flying. The most pressing question being why a mother and daughter would be fighting over territory?
The Nkoveni Female with a very young Plaque Rock Female as a cub in 2018 on the boulders she is named after, Plaque Rock.
As we continued to observe the behaviour of mother and daughter the answers became clearer. They did not engage in a full-blown fight but rather settled 10 meters apart from each other and eventually, they parted ways amicably. It was evident that once the Nkoveni Female was certain she was sniffing the scent of her first successfully raised cub, she then tolerated her presence and backed away. Still intrigued by what might happen next, we decided to stick with the Nkoveni Female. Which gave us a good insight into what had led to the mother-daughter encounter. For the next hour, the Nkoveni Female began to retrace the steps of her daughter.
The Nkoveni Female sniffed through the long grass and re-scent marked over her daughter’s markings. Not only enthralled by our current sighting, but we also found ourselves reliving another sighting we had only heard about from the previous day. The Nkoveni Female lead us to the exact spot where the Plaque Rock Female had been sharing an impala kill with the Maxim’s Male less than 24 hours before. This gave us another clue into why the territorial spat had started in the first place.
The Maxims Male is impressive not only in size but in his ability to remain elusive making it much harder to capture clear footage of him.
Fairly skittish male that is presumed to have come from the Kruger National Park.
Currently raising her two most recent daughters, the Nkoveni Female has to keep a watchful eye over who is moving through her territory. Although it is possible that the Maxim’s Male is the father of the two younger cubs, he still poses a potential threat to their livelihood. He may very well also be causing the Plaque Rock Female to encroach on her mother’s territory as he will look to both mother and daughter for mating opportunities.
One of the many memorable sightings of the Nkoveni Female’s young cubs playing together that we have had the privilege of witnessing over the last year.
The next point to consider is that the Nkoveni Female would have originally ceded some of her territory to her eldest daughter, which as discussed before eventually comes down to furthering the genetic lines. However, we now have to speculate whether or not she will push the Plaque Rock Female further to accommodate her two younger daughters as they move towards independence. We also have to ask how the Plaque Rock Female will react to the growing presence of her younger sisters? We have seen two sisters from the same litter battle it out for territory before, but this time there will be three sisters from two different litters.
Who will be ceding territory to who and who will look to venture into unknown and unclaimed territories? One question always leads to another and only time will tell. So be sure to keep a lookout for a follow-up blog in the next couple of months…
Kelsey such beautiful foto’s of all leopards. It is going to be very interesting to see what the Nkoveni female is going to do about giving the two one year female cubs territory, and how the elder sister is going to react to all of this. Very glad mother and daughter did not fight when they smelt and saw watch other. The Maxim’s male is such a handsome and big bleopard, so wonderful to see him on Londolozi. Maybe he will mate with Nkoveni and her daughter the Plague rock female.
It certainly will be an interesting time ahead between all these leopards Valmai. There have also already been some interactions between the Maxim’s male with both the Nkoveni and Plaque Rock females.
Thanks for the interesting blog on these two female leopards. It’s great that the Nkoveni female is such a successful mother that she has already brought up three daughters successfully. I am looking forward to more articles on all these leopards and how they will determine who is going to rule over which territory.
My pleasure Christa, I am glad you enjoyed it and can look forward to the follow on blog post.
Wow, terrific blog Kelsey, and a lot of detective work going on there! Plaque Rock must have been mating with Maxim’s very recently, as surely he wouldn’t allow her to share a kill with him otherwise? Must be at least 3-4 – months ago since she lost her cub – Alfie said he wasn’t surprised as it was incredibly inquisitive and into everything. Nkoveni is certainly a model for raising cubs successfully, though she was must be thinking now how much easier it was with 1 cub instead of 2!
Thank you Suzanne. Yes, we do think that the Plaque Rock female and Maxim’s male have been mating recently and hopefully she will have more success raising cubs in the future!
Thanks for keeping us up to date on the leopard melodrama. We genuinely appreciate your insights and credible hypotheses about the behaviors.
My pleasure Vin 🙂
Thanks Kelsey. Fascinating story about the encounter between mother and daughter. I will be waiting the see how the drama un folds over the next couple of years.
Pleasure William – I’m sure there will be another update within the next few months.
This is one of the most memorable blog! Leopards are never too many… their numbers dwindle everywhere but in Londolozi it seems! It is almost like a miracle, the two sisters and mother. Such wonderful pictures!
Thank you Francesca – I’m so happy you enjoyed the blog. We certainly are privileged with leopard sightings here at Londolozi.
I’ve been pondering this very scenario in my mind for a while and look forward to seeing what ultimately plays out.
It does get you thinking! Keep an eye out in the coming months for the next update.
Terrific update on the Nkoveni female accompanied by great photos of her and her daughters plus the Maxim male. I appreciate all the research done by all of you related to the territories held by Nkoveni, Plaque Rock and Maxim – guess we all have to wait to see what will happen when the two cubs reach independence and will need their own real estate. We saw what happened with Finfoot and Nkuwa…. And then if Maxim mates with both Plaque Rock and Nkoveni and they both have cubs, well then it will get really interesting.
Thank you Denise. These leopards certainly keep us intrigued with all the interesting dynamics!
Hi Kelsey, great post, always love these dynamics updates! Was wondering if you all have seen the Mashaba Female recently? Also wondering if the Leopards of Londolozi website will be updated? I know that is probably a time-consuming task but the Nkoveni’s profile says “a young female” and there are other profiles that are outdated. Thanks again for a great post!
Thanks Michael. Yes, the Mashaba Female has been seen recently although sightings have been less frequent over the last few months. The leopard profiles are always a constant work in progress with updates but I have just checked and the Nkoveni Female’s profile is now up to date 🙂
By all accounts Kelsey it seems there will be some trouble brewing in the future what … with the Nkoveni female’s 3 daughters destined to share a portion of her territory. I do hope the two younger cubs don’t come to any harm with their eldest sister or the Maxim’s male, as they have been magical to watch as they have grown into mischievous teenagers. I look forward to your follow up 🙏🏻. Fabulous photos too thanks for sharing ❤️
Pleasure Cally. It sure does seem that there might be some trouble brewing but no doubt there will still be plenty of great viewing opportunities with these leopards.
Well Kelsey, after seeing the latest blogs with videos of violence, that’s the topic nr one on internet in internet, kudos to you for choosing life and love, so much needed especially in the human world now. This photos are hydillic.
Thank you Francesca 🙂