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Patrick Grealy

Ranger

Patrick was born and raised in Johannesburg and from a young age dreamt about living in the bush. He grew up going on family holidays to Madikwe in the North West where his passion grew. After high school Patrick went to the Eastern ...

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12 Comments

on My Top 5 Leopard Sightings Of 2023

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I am so delighted to live vicariously through your leopard sighting highlights of 2023. None of the adults on Londolozi passed this year, correct? Only cubs?

Senior Digital Ranger

What beautiful pictures. I can see why they are your favourite .

Wonderful times with these beautiful leopards.
It’s really fantastic that one can see so many leopards at Londolozi.

Patrick: Wow, all exciting sightings! Our top five from 2023 were the unfortunate & violent Nkoveni and Three Rivers encounter that resulted in the death of the cub; watching the Senegal Bush male allow his supposed son Ntomi feed on a kill; and following the Nkuwa female on a march (with a scrub hare in her mouth) to a Sand River spit to feed her cubs.

I am so glad you love the leopards as well Patrick. They are my most favorite animal and can watch them all day long. Ntomi male is so majestic in stature and Thumbela is also a beauty in her own right. You surely are so privileged to stay there in the paradise it self namely Londolozi, with all those incredible animals, wild life, fresh air and that you get to see them everyday allday.

Patrick, Thanks for the great story and magnificent images! We especially love the quizical look on the Thumbela femailes face! She is beautiful!

I understand why you’ve selected these images as your top five sightings of last year. Your photo of Ndzanzeni with her cub is priceless. Seeing a small cub is still on my bucket list so maybe this year will fulfill my dream. My favorite sightings last year were seeing the Ntomi male with his young wildebeest kill, the now named Thumbela female with her mom Xinzele climb a tree to where a carcass was stashed and the Flat Rock male walking along the road early one morning as he marked his territory, the warm morning light glistening across his body. There were more sightings but those were my personal favorites.

My favorite sighting this year (so hard to choose!!) was the Thumbela female chasing a mongoose back and forth across the Manyelethi dry riverbed. She finally caught it but, seemingly, didn’t know what to do with it! She pawed it some, finally picked it up and carried it a ways until 2 hyenas showed up. She took off up a tree, the mongoose ran another direction and the hyenas were left with nothing!!

Glad to see our sighting with the Ntomi male made the list!

Hi Patrick, to us this blog is one of the best ever! The Mashaba female is a myth, then the Ndzanzeni female who’s the last of the royal line, from the Mother Leopard. I particularly love her eyes, rimmed with spots, her dark nose and contrast. Do you have any news on the cub? The Ntomi male is such a guy, the Thumbela female wins the sympathy prize and the Plack Rock female is gorgeous too! Can’t takr my eyes off the picture of the Ndzanzeni female, my favourite ever, with her precious last cub of the dynasty…

Patrick, great review and pictures. I hope 2024 is equally as beautiful.

Love these moment and pics! Soft spot for the so handsome Ntomi male…love that he wasn’t 100% confident in leaving mom but is thriving so well now! I have two boys of my own so there’s that! Ha! 🙂

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