Londolozi as we know it is home to a very high density of wild leopards. The game viewing we enjoy here is spectacular. In this week’s Virtual Safari, we begin with a fairly relaxed sighting of the Senegal Bush Male and the Ximungwe Female as he feeds on a duiker kill that she had made.
With her giving off a growl every now and then, we assumed it was her showing her displeasure with the male about to finish off the last of her kill. Turns out, she had other things on her mind.
Join us on this week’s adventure as we hope to catch an incredible sequence of these two remarkable animals.
Enjoy this Virtual Safari…
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
Initially seen as a young male in 2016, this leopard only properly established territory on Londolozi in mid-2019
To view the YouTube link, click here.
The couple mates in a very lovely place… it always strikes to see how large the male is compared to the female. Then when he is so unlucky as to “meet” a lion, he suddenly seems so small! The first time I saw a lioness trying to attack a leopard I was very surprised at his real size. Hopefully this mating will produce successful babies. Any news of the Mashaba female?
Male leopards do look so much bigger than females until you then see one next to a lion and realise how much bigger the lions are.
Great blog Sean. The leopards of Londolozi are most impressive. Hope the current mating is successful.
Thank you so much, William. I hope the current mating is successful and we see a few more young cubs on the way.
Marvelous leopard videos! Also enjoyed the prep at the beginning. Would like to see your entire prep sometime narrated and how you set yourself up in your vehicle, plus how you setup and launch your drone pics.
Thank you so much, Bob. We will hopefully share a few more little snippets of the behind-the-scenes as we go forward which will include all of what you are asking about.
Hi Sean, that was a phenomenal sighting of the two leopards mating in the open for us to see. Senegal bush male is my favorite male leopard and I’ m so glad he mated with the Ximungwe female. Her adult cub will have to move on now on his own as mom should be pregnant from the mating session. Looking forward to more leopard cubs soon.
Thank you so much, Valmai. It is always amazing to see leopards mating and so we were very lucky.
What an incredible sighting Sean of the Ximungwe female and Senegal Bush male mating! Has he been the presumed father of her two adult males that she has brilliantly raised? I’ve always found it curious that after mating, the male displays such an aggressive “attack” towards the female, biting down on her neck with a snarl, and then oftentimes, leaping off her to ramble off to rest. I’ve observed the same behavior in lions’ mating as well. I’m wondering if it’s a sign of dominance….. at any rate, if it’s a successful mating experience for her, then just perhaps I’ll be able to view her cub(s) in April. My bucket list includes seeing leopard cubs and a Pangolin…. we’ll see.
Thank you so much, Denise. It was a magical sighting. It is presumed that the Senegal Bush Male is the father of this current young male. The Inyathini Male is the Father of the Mahlahla Male. It is a sign of dominance while mating causing her to be submissive. The aggressive dismount is a result of the barbed penis and the pain when removing it after copulation. We will put out more on this soon.
Sean, thank you for the information. Any idea where the Mahlahla is calling home these days?
You are most welcome. The Mahlahla Male is now territorial to the north east of Marthly. Apparently he comes onto Marthly every now and then but I have not seen him there yet.
Do you not ever worry about running over cheetah or lion cubs(newborn) hidden in the grass
No because they are very unlikely to be hiding at random in a tuft of grass. They are likely to be in the thicker vegetation or grass.
that was AMAZING!! It will be very exciting to (hopefully) observe the full cycle and see her cubs. Even better, that some survive and thrive. Truly spectacular footage!
Thank you so much, Kylea. It was such an amazing sighting.
Lovely scenes. To see leopards or also lions mating is something very special.
I hope that the female will get pregnant and we can see cute little cubs in a few months’ time.
Looking forward to seeing the babies.
We are all hoping for some new little cubs. It will be really exciting.
Great video this week.
Couple of notes… Is Ximungwe’s male cub fully independent now? I guess she is looking to make it so since she is mating.
Senegal Bush Male has been busy meeting with all sorts of females lately – wonder how many cups he has sired
Can’t count the number of posts where something has killed a Duiker lately – wonder if this is just a string of bad luck for them
Thank you so much, Kara. Yes, I believe that he is fully independent and that his mother is no longer going to collect him and take him back to carcasses.
The Senegal Bush Male has been a busy man of late and spent a fair amount of time mating with a number of females. It would be interesting to try and work out how many cubs he has sired, but sadly most of them have all passed on and so we will never really know. THe only one we know of now is the Ximungwe Young Male.
Sadly, there have been a fair few duikers that have been caught, I think it is just bad luck/coincidence.
Hopefully more sweet cubbies coming soon! Do you suppose Ximungwe knew that the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?
I think she must have definitely known that was the quickest way.