A couple afternoons ago we had the absolute treat of witnessing something we don’t often get to witness, mating leopards. The Ximungwe female and Maxims male.
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
We set out on an afternoon game drive in search of the Three Rivers Female and her cub. She hadn’t been seen in a couple days so we thought it was about time she would be back at the den site. Our thoughts were she must have been at a kill with the cub because there were no fresh signs of her having returned to the den site and no sign of the cub exploring as they do when they get to this age. We then decided to have a proper look in and around the area.
Forced into early independence at 11 months. Despite her small size, she's proven resilient, currently raising a cub in SE Londolozi.
After spending quite a bit of time in the area fellow ranger and tracker Dan and Freddy called in fresh tracks of a female leopard heading towards a drainage line and it is here where the magic all started. As it was fairly thick, trackers Life Sibuyi and Freddy Ngobeni jumped off on foot and walked in the drainage line, this also allowed them to listen away from the noise of the landcover engine. I got a radio call from Life telling me he heard growling but it was coming from quite a distance away.
Learning about the behaviours, movements and dynamics of leopards is extremely exciting. Tracking these predators daily is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. Here, a ranger and tracker pair walk down a sand track behind the trail of a female leopard.
Myself and Dan quickly headed to the area where Life thought he heard the growling while. As we got there we turned off the vehicle to give us a better chance at pinpointing where this growling was coming from. The sun was setting and we were running out of time when all of a sudden a herd of impalas erupted into a cacophony of alarm calls a couple hundred metres away, along the Maxabene Riverbed. Because Life heard the growling from quite a distance away we weren’t sure exactly what was going on and we were very surprised to bump into not one but two leopards. It was the Ximungwe Female and Maxims Male marching down the Maxabene Riverbed. When leopards are mating it is a fairly noisy affair involving a lot of growling that tends to escalate during the mating bout.
Fairly skittish male that is presumed to have come from the Kruger National Park.
This is the second known bout of mating the Ximungwe female has had with the Maxims Male since losing her cubs earlier this year. The first bout took place almost directly after losing her cubs and this is often a sign of mourning. Leopards are unlikely to fall pregnant in this bout of mating so it is about right that she is looking to mate again and hopefully she will fall pregnant and have cubs relatively soon.
Female leopards will try to mate with several males in the surrounding territories to safeguard their cubs. This convinces the males that the cubs could potentially be his and so if he is to come across them at a later stage he has a vested interest in them and will hopefully not kill them. Whether or not the Ximungwe Female will mate with other males is unsure as the Maxims Male occupies the entirety of her territory with significant portions further east and west of her territory. She potentially will look to mate with the Nweti Male whose territory is further to the South and likely the Senegal Bush Male to the west.
With a mating bout like this, we are all very hopeful that she will have cubs in the next couple of months and we will continue to enjoy some spectacular leopard viewing as of late. I will be sure to keep you updated.
In September 2022, she (Ximungwe Female) posed for us up on a mound for quite a long time and then we followed her watching her mark her area. Looking forward to this September’s sightings!
Hi Ross, I was struck by the word “mourning “, and appreciate it deeply. There still are a majority of researchers that exclude de facto any feelings comparable to humans ‘, considering them a personal view of the observer, without taking into account other factors, such as hormones production and brain functions. Each animal is unique, but all mothers are linked to their offsprings and take care of them to risk their lives if they have to. Mourning is a perfectly safe hypothesis in a mother that has spent some time with her offspring, produced milk, carried on her pregnancy and so on. The same behavioural ecologists I had to study with were to avoid any mourning mentioning… luckily times have been changing and it’s so nice to read articles like this. The photos are great, how large is the Macxim’s male, she looks small close to him… as he controls such a vaste territory, he will be hopefully able to protect his future offsprings.
Good luck to the beautiful Ximungwe female, the Three Rivers female and her adorable little daughter!
Hi Francesca, I am so with you! Animals feel a whole range of emotions and they are not akin to humans.. they are absolutely the same! Happiness or sadness is not different for a person or any animal… perhaps the only difference is that as people, we hang on to our emotions because we have that cursed frontal lobe that keeps on pulling us back to emotions that are not even always relevant in the moment anymore. Animals are not robots; they feel just as we do. Thank you, Ross, for the sensitive observation.
Great update Ross, I hope she is successful in becoming pregnant and raising her cubs.
Such great news! It was heartbreaking she lost her last litter but fingers crossed she can once again raise at least one cub to adulthood, continuing the Sunset Bend legacy.
Thanks Ross for the good news on the Ximungwe female and Maxim’s male mating. We would love to see more leopard cubs again, especially the Ximungwe’s cubs as she had lost her cubs previously. Maxim’s male is a huge male and a stunning specimen.