This has been said at the start of every entry in this series, and it stays true. There is a weird kind of obsession that takes hold of people who spend any considerable time with leopards at Londolozi. Rangers who have been here for decades will still sit in complete silence, fixated on an animal in the tree above them, long after the guests have stopped asking questions. This series attempts to honour that obsession and the animals who caused it.
Born 2020 during lockdown to Piccadilly Female. Once skittish, now confident mother denning her first litter in Marthly's rocky terrain.
Ngungwe 3:3 Female | Born 2020 | Alive | Sunset Bend Lineage
The northern reaches of Londolozi are a landscape apart, quite unlike anywhere else on the reserve. Rocky outcrops, boulder-strewn slopes, dense Combretum thickets, and the magnificent Manyelethi Riverbed carving its way through it all. It is rich, varied ground, and it hides a leopard well. For the first year of her life it hid this one almost completely. The Ngungwe Female was born into that terrain in April 2020, in a season when the roads carried very few vehicles. The world had gone into lockdown, and for close to eight months the reserve stood closed and quiet.
That coincidental timing shaped her. Leopard cubs raised at Londolozi usually grow up alongside a careful daily passage of Land Rovers, learning early that the vehicles are neither threat nor prey and can be safely ignored. She had no such introduction. She spent her first months with almost no vehicles in her world, and when the reserve reopened, she was slow to accept these unusual objects that moved through her mother’s territory. And it is in these formative months that the foundation of her temperament around vehicles was set. For years she was one of the most difficult leopards on Londolozi to find, glimpsed briefly and at a distance before she slipped away.
She is a daughter of the Piccadilly Female, which places her within the golden-coated Sunset Bend lineage that traces back to the iconic Sunset Bend Female. Her presumed father is the Flat Rock Male, long territorial across much of Marthly. She carries her mother’s richly marked coat and bright eyes, the clear stamp of the Sunset Bend line. She was the only cub the Piccadilly Female raised to independence on Londolozi, which she reached toward the end of 2021.
In early 2023 she was given a name of her own, drawn from a small track on Marthly that runs close to the Sand River. ‘Ngungwe’ is the Shangaan word for the African fish eagle, the bird whose call carries over the water she lives beside.
As is often the case with mother leopards ceding territory to their daughters, her mother eventually shifted further east leaving this prime territory around Marthly Pools, the Manyelethi Riverbed and the marula-studded crests surrounding it to the Ngungwe Female.
The Ngungwe female descending the Marula tree off Ximpalapala crest. A sighting and back drop that I have personally dreamed of photographing during my time at Londolozi.
After a thrilling morning with the Ngungwe Female (stay tuned for more on this next weekend), she settles down on a boulder close to Marthly Pools.
Her first litter came in the early days of December 2024. She denned in the koppies at Marthly Pools, and was found moving two small cubs between the crevices in the rock when they were no more than a week old. One of the two was lost before its first year. The other, a female, she raised alone all the way to independence at an age a little ahead of when young females usually part from their mothers. It was her first successful litter after a quiet and uncertain start.
The daughter she raised inherited more than the edge of her territory. Seen only seldom through her early life, as her mother once was, she too moves warily and shows herself rarely, the same reticence carried down a single generation.
The Ngungwe Female has grown easier over the years. She is seen more often now, and more calmly, coming down a marula on the crest in the low morning light or crossing the open sand of the Manyelethi Riverbed without hurry. The wariness that once defined her has largely fallen away. What remains is the country itself, the granite outcrops and the thick green along the river, and a leopard moving through it the way she always has, mostly out of sight, exactly where she belongs.
To recap the previous leopards, follow the links below:
Hi Sean. The blogs on the big cats are always so very interesting indeed and the blog on the 6 year old Ngungwe female was no exception what so ever. Born to the Piccadilly female in April 2020, it was so incredible to see how shy she was as a tiny cub herself and the fact it took her a rather long time to settle down and become just as so highly relaxed around game drive vehicles as her mother is to this very day. I’m not sure, but it must have taken her at least 2 or 3 years to become nice and relaxed beautifully.
I know she’s raised her own first ever cub, a little girl, to independence ever so very successfully, and if she has mated again now already, then I hope she’s due to have another litter of cubs on the way very soon by now one day. It is obvious that she’s learned well from her mother on how to raise cubs as she’s got one all the way to independence already.
As she’s raised one girl cub to independence now already, I wouldn’t say she is experienced, but I’m sure her experience in cub raising will grow much more successfully as she produces more litters of cubs one after the other in the years and months to come and go. I hope she’ll get a good few to independence and a lot more then what her mother has raised.
I know she can be elusive at times, but if she is next seen with cubs, then I expect she will be seen a lot more frequently. Especially as I know that having cubs that rely on her, will pressure her to go out hunting much more then she’d like. But if she’s got tiny youngsters that are that reliant on her for food, milk, protection and tlc, then I know it sounds rather tiring, but she won’t be left with much choice if her cubs are to survive. I hope she, the Ngungwe female, will live to a very good and long age like proceeding leopards have done many times in the past. At nearly 6 1/2 years old, she is still a relatively young leopard with no cubs to care for at the moment currently. I’m hoping she’ll lead a long and prosperous life in the wild there and raise many more cubs to independence successfully.
Hope to hear from you shortly.
Robert 29.9.26
Hi Sean the Ngungwe female is a stunning female leopard. That lineage that she comes from makes her golden coat. Her Mom the Picadilly female was also a familiar female with the same beautiful golden coat. It is a pity that she is no more with us. Thanks for the outline of the Ngungwe females family lineage.
Great piece Sean!
Hi Sean, finally a nice report on a lovely creature that is much willing to live and has successfully brought to independence her daughter! The daughter of Piccadilly female.. such an elegant and beautiful lady… she looks very alike. I’m looking forward to following her future development….
Very cool profile of the Ngungwe Female Leopard Sean. Through their unique lineages and personal histories, these profiles really do give us a great sense of not only the leaoprds, but as you said in the beginning, some of what draws you to them, newly each time you encounter them. This leopard’s origin story is quite interesting in that she was so influenced by the lockdown, and how that influenced her only one generation in. Fascinating! Thanks as always for the deep dive and engaging storytelling.
How fortunate that she was able to raise a cub from her very first litter to independence. I’m enjoying this series. It helps me feel more familiar with them.
Thanks for this lovely blog on the Ngungwe Female.
I think it‘s such a great idea to introduce the different leopards of Londolozi.
They are all such wonderful characters.
When I came after Lockdown to Londolozi, the first leopard I saw still on my day of arrival, was the Ngungwe female. What special sighting that was!
I keep my fingers r/s crossed for her that she will raise anew litter successfully continuing with her great lineage
Thanks Sean for this terrific piece about the Ngungwe female. Her mother has always been one of my favorite leopards to view, although after her daughter reached independence, I have not seen her since she moved further east. Let’s hope that Ngungwe falls pregnant once again, adding another male or female leopard to the Sunset Bend lineage.