Involved Leopards

Nhlanguleni 3:2 Female

Nhlanguleni 3:2 Female

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Nkuwa 3:3 Female

Nkuwa 3:3 Female

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Finfoot 3:3 Female

Finfoot 3:3 Female

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About the Author

Ross Cheshire

Guest contributor

Ross was born and raised in Durban, spending many a family holiday in the northern parts of KwaZulu Natal. It is here that his love and passion for the African Bush developed. He decided to combine his love of working with people and ...

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8 Comments

on The Challenges Facing The Nhlanguleni Female

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I’m sorry to learn Nhlanguleni has been seen limping but given the injuries many of these animals have sustained, I’ve no doubt that she will recover. Given her age she has a wealth of experience and knows how to care for and compensate for that leg injury. I look at Mashaba at 16 years old, only successfully raising two cubs but still healthy and believe Nhlanguleni can also continue to thrive, after her leg heals, hopefully living a few more years as well. Thanks for the update.

Hi, I like her so much, she has a full muzzle like the Maxim male and a soft expression. She looks elegant and agile but also powerful like most leopards. I like her small spots and the way she passes her features onto her offspring. Her pink nose and golden coat are different from the Ndzanzeni female that looks the opposite, a narrower muzzle and a very dark nose, a different colour and rosettes but I like her so much too. Have you got any news about her daughters? I hope she will overcome her injury and hopefully have a litter of cubs… maybe in Londolozi older females are the opposite, as the Nkoveni, the Mashaba and others had three cubs in older ages… who knows the Nhlanguleni, as she’s a Golden Sunset female… thank you so much for fresh news on her and the fantastic pictures I look at again and again…

Hi Ross. We saw Nhlanguleni on the afternoon of Sept 11th under a big sausage tree with a hoisted kill. She was full bellied then. She then got up to climb and we could see that she didn’t want to bear weight on her left back leg/paw. No obvious injury at all but clearly very uncomfortable. We then watched her climb back up to feed but it took her awhile to find a way to scale the tree with the least amount of pressure on her back paw. Very inelegantly, she did finally manage to go back up and feed peacefully. Later she came back down again to rest and proceeded to saw several times while sitting there! She rotated her position over an 180 degree arc as if to broadcast her vocals as widely as possible! We were definitely transfixed and a bit puzzled as to why she would vocalize right next to her meal. No sign of (her supposed) new cubs and no sign of any rival predator and no audio of any replies. We finally left her as the sky went dark and hoped that she would be OK and heal and recover from her injury quickly.

It is fascinating to see the pictures and reread the story of her life so far. Thanks for the wonderful pictures, Ross.

She was pretty hard to find recently, only located after days and days of searching. Perhaps keeping herself scarce until she heals is how she’s coping with her injury.

Is her tail especially long? Sure seems longer than the average. She is a beauty. Hope she heals quickly!

Thanks, Ross, for thisblog on the Nhlanguleni Female. She had such bad luck with her last litter. It would be wonderful if she had another chance. I do hope that she will get better soon. Leopards, especially female ones are such great and tough animals. I love them.

Dear Ross, thank you for that update, and all the amazing pics.

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