For the past few months, the Ximungwe Female has kept us all guessing.
After returning from leave earlier in the year, I was fortunate to see her on a couple of occasions, and each sighting gave us reassuring signs. She looked to be in good condition, and the very clear suckle marks told us she was nursing cubs somewhere within her territory.
Based on her movements and behaviour, we believed she had given birth at the beginning of January. What followed was a patient and often challenging search for her den. The central parts of her territory are incredibly thick in places, and with limited access to some areas of the reserve, locating a den site there is never easy.
For weeks, we drove through the areas she frequents, looking for any clue that might lead us to where she had hidden her cubs. She continued to move through familiar sections of her territory, but finding the exact location of the den proved far more difficult than we had hoped.
If you look closely, lying on the boulders there is a leopard, the Ximungwe Female at her den.
Eventually, after a long and careful search, we were able to locate the den and confirm that the Ximungwe female has two cubs. Our views of them so far have been extremely limited, and unfortunately we don’t yet have any photographs of them, but simply confirming their presence was an incredibly exciting moment for all of us.
If you’d like to see the moment we discovered the den, Sean featured it in last week’s Virtual Safari, where we managed to capture some incredible aerial footage of the Ximungwe Female and her cubs.
Since then, she has already moved the cubs to a new den site, which is very normal behaviour for a leopard with young cubs. Moving them regularly helps keep them safe from predators and other threats in the area.
For now, we’re hopeful that this new den will give us better opportunities to see them in the coming weeks. Watching leopard cubs grow up in the wild is always something special, and the first clear sighting when they begin exploring outside the den is a moment every ranger remembers.
What we do know is that the Ximungwe Female is doing exactly what she needs to be doing. She’s hunting successfully, caring for her cubs, and once again proving what a capable mother she is, something we’ve seen before, having already raised cubs to independence in the past.
So while she kept us guessing for a while, the mystery has finally been solved. Now we wait patiently for those first proper views of the cubs as they begin to explore their world.
Stay tuned and hopefully it won’t be long before we can share them with you.
Hi LGR. Thank you so much for putting up an interesting update on the heavily lactating Ximungwe female leopard and the finding of her densite containing her fifth litter of cubs over there. Whilst we now know that she’s got 2 very cute, tiny and healthy cubs, and though it’s a bit to early to say if she will or not, but let’s all hope that she’ll be far more successful in raising them this time round, and get the tiny twins to independence. She hasn’t been very successful in raising cubs ever since her last independent offspring, the elusive Ntomi male cut himself loose from her apron strings a good couple of years ago. He will be about 4 years old now. So I hope she will and can beat and defy the odds stacked against her, and have a very successful litter to independence. I bet everyone is so looking forward to seeing her cubs when and once she has decided to reveal them a lot more clearly in the weeks to come and go eventually. But it is so easy to say she is a very good and phenomenally caring, devoted, successful and wise mother.
I don’t suppose the sex of her two small cubs has been confirmed yet, but they’re either two boys, two girls or one of each. But whatever they both are, they’re very cute and tiny indeed. Though she’s two months away from her eleventh birthday now which is getting on a bit by leopard standards, it is so important that she keeps herself in very good condition and health if she’s to be successful in her hunts when she’s looking for some food.
She also needs to feed a lot as well, to keep up the milk supply for her two tiny cubs, as she’ll need to keep them on milk until they’re old enough to eat meat. I bet you’ll be able to sex her two cubs as and when you get a clearer and closer look at them both. I know no one wants anything to happen to them, but it’ll be nice to see two beautiful and cute baby leopard cubs live and survive all the way to independence successfully there.
I think it is fair to say she’s learned well from the experience of her very elusive and aging mother, the Mashaba female. Though her mother is 6 months away from her 18th birthday right now, but I don’t think it’ll stop us from knowing the fact that her mum tought her the arts of cub raising so extremely well indeed. Will it? If she gets her 2 cubs all the way to independence successfully, I think she will have earned herself a medal for all of her very impressively good and hard work. We know the large Maxim’s male is the biological father of her cubs, as she mated with him in about early October. But fingers crossed that she’ll gets both little youngsters to independence.
Hope to hear from you shortly.
Robert 17.3.26
Thanks for the update Ross! We can’t wait to see the new cubs!
It’s such a thrill! She’s a superb mother, I could barely believe when her previous son was lost after she recovered so well and managed to keep him sound and kicking. I do hope she will be able to raise both… it’s very difficult but she can manage that. When she usually gave birth to a son, now she has twins, who knows…. she’s one of the most beautiful leopards around, like the Nkoveni Female, they look different being from different fathers (the Nkoveni having a rounder face like the Mashaba female), but they are both superbly designed for survival and this is perceived in their spectacular bodies, marking and eyes… wishing all three a very special successful future!
Thanks for this reassuring update on the Ximungwe Female and her cubs.
A clever mum, keeping her cubs out of harm’s way.
Good to know that they are all well and obviously survived that heavy rain you had.
I wish her good luck for the next time so that the cubs can grow and please everybody with their lovely presence.
Am so looking forward to seeing them in May!
It seems Ximungwe’s den sites are typically difficult to find and access, usually are located in areas with large boulders and deep drainage ditches, but not surprising given her territory. But now that her cubs will be approaching the 12 week mark in a few weeks, I’m hopeful she will have moved them to a more open area where they can be seen playing and your sightings will be filled with cute cub pictures.
Reminds me of the time NickTennick and Joy led us to discover the Ximungwe and cubs at another den.
Thanks for the update. Always good news when cubs are born. Hopefully. We’ll see the cubs soon. On that subject. Any more updates on the Tsalala female?
Hi Ross, thanks for the update on the Ximungwe female. Those two little fur balls are so cute. Please let us know from time to time how she is doing and maybe get some good photos of the gorgeous cubs.