The second instalment of the camera trap chronicles has been completed over the last week. Once again the main focus in trying to catch a leopard so we searched around for a suitable spot. As always, some other interesting creatures popped up along the way. We eventually settled on setting it up long a prominent game path that sits less than a kilometre from the Londolozi Camps.
Often, we’ve followed or tracked the Ximungwe Female and Ximungwe Young Male as well as the Senegal Bush Male, in that area and along the same game path. My hopes were high that we were going to capture at least one of them over the course of the next seven days, along with what ever other visitors that may wander by…
Our first exciting discovery was the presence of a resident porcupine in the area. It was captured every night on the camera, usually between midnight and 2am. These large rodents are quite elusive in these parts and are hardly ever seen while out on a game drive, largely due to their strict nocturnal behaviour.
Once again, with the camera trap aimed at capturing a leopard or animals slightly closer to the ground, only this giraffe’s legs feature.
A fair few wandered past the camera but this one – which I presume is an adult male based on the size and colour – spent a while in the early morning milling about the camera.
This site yielded a lot less hyena activity than I was expecting. It’s less than a kilometre from a hyena den site and I thought that we would have them strolling past on a regular basis. This was the only one that was captured on the first night.
A curious wildebeest casts his eye toward the camera while passing by in the early morning light.
A Genet darts past the camera in the wee hours of the morning.
Success! On the last evening of having the camera set up, we captured this leopard wandering past in the early evening. Although we can’t see the face, we presume that it is the Ximungwe Female. I was over the moon to say that we finally captured a leopard!
Very cool!. At least you also know where to be to see a porcupine between 12 and 2 – lol.
Good job Chris. Capturing animals at night provides new angles for some great pictures. I even enjoyed the giraffe’s legs and feet.
Well done Chris. Just illustrates that perseverance and patience does yield results of finding a leopard, in addition to a few more creatures. Wouldn’t it have been amazing to have had those two pangolins cross your camera trap?!
Chris it is always surprising to see who passed the camera, look at all the different animals your camera photographed. Some unexpected animals and some you were hoping to see, which you did in the end. The camera makes life a little easier for The Rangers to capture the unexpected visiting the hidden camera.
Love these kinds of posts Chris, and amazing what you can learn from the camera traps! Which hyena clan do you think the hyena is from of the three you all see on the reserve?
Been looking forward to this, as I suspect that there is always wildlife events going on at Londolozi other than people suspect.
Why not a camera in the plains area , where the ostriches and cheetahs 🐆 are?
It is really shod idea to have set up a camera trap. So you know who exactly wanders along that path at night.
Good luck that there will be more leopards.
So fun to see what the camera traps “catch!” We put one in our backyard and saw a gray coastal fox at our fountain. Nice to know what’s happening while we’re off in dreamland!
Hope you have a few more of these in the near future.
Have not encountered a porcupine at Londolozi but saw several at Tswalu Kalahari.
I think that camera traps are very cool, and incredibly important for research purposes. Well done!