Tintswalo Leopard Identification Project

The project

Leopard in the Manyeleti Game Reserve have unfortunately not been studied in the same way as our neighbours to the north and south have, and we decided the best way to improve our leopard sightings is to understand the population on the reserve.

This is how we started the process.

Step one:

Try to get photos of every leopard seen. Through this we can start to document the spot patterning of each leopard. On top of this we have through the blogs, kept all the maps of where each individual was seen. These maps aid us to understand where territories lie and where the best place is to locate certain individuals.

Even leopards that we couldn’t manage to get a photo of were recorded on maps. Through this we can identify “hotspots” and focus on these areas in the second part of the project.

Step two:

Now that we have a fair amount of information, we can make “educated guesses” as to where the best places are to look for tracks. Once we find tracks, our newly formed tracking teams can start working the particular area. As soon as the animal is located, we can begin to apply a little more pressure and start habituating the found leopards. We can also concentrate on the relaxed leopards and ensure through these processes that we can deliver consistent leopard sightings to our guests.

The main aim is to relax more female leopards. This will assist us to start documenting and working with leopard from a young age, when these females have cubs. This project won’t be completed in a few months and it has already taken us a few months just to gather enough information to start implementing step two.

We will initially focus our attention to the area around our concession and will spend a few months concentrating specifically on this area. Once we have started making some good successes in the area, we can start moving on to the next hotspots and begin working on the leopards in those areas.

 

Through this step by step process we should make plenty of progress and ensure top quality and consistent leopard sightings.

Some of the successes we have had on this project so far include identifying the Beacon male as the top male in the central Manyeleti area and the Main dam females territory has started making sense. This will be one of the females we’ll be working to relax more as well as her cubs at the moment.

Below are some of the characters we have managed to watch so far.

The Males

Beacon male

This big tom frequents most of our concession on the Manyeleti. He is about eight years old and already bares the scars of a successful male leopard. The areas that we have found him tend to be around Main dam as well as to the north of the lodge. We believe his territory stretches from Lompfane pan in the north to the lodge in the south and from Main dam in the east to the lodge again in the west.

He definitely has some of the best territory in the Manyeleti, as he has the plains of plenty around Main dam and the sweet grazing in the west. These areas attract a lot of prey species, and is perfect for a big male. Lots of food means lots of opportunities to meet females. His territory is limited by a huge male in the north, and another big male east of Main dam.

At his age, he probably has at least another four to five years to rule over his territory. The females that he would have interactions with in his territory are the Main dam female, the Rhulani female and probably a few other unidentified females.

One drawback of his territory is that most of it is also a favourite haunt of the Matimba male lions and the Koppies pride. These present serious threats to his safety and future success.

Skybeds male

We don’t have a lot of information on this male. He is seen at Skybeds dam itself and his tracks are found from the Khoka Moya dam east to Koppies and north to Skybeds and Morubisi dams. He rules the whole northern section of the reserve. His tracks have been identified by one foot being a little skew, probably from a prior injury. He has been noticed in this area from 2010 as is a very relaxed leopard. He is definitely one of our target leopards for this project.

Induna male

We have so far only had one sighting of this male. He was found on S7 cutline in September 2012 and we think that he is in the southern Manyeleti. We have identified the area around S8 dam as a good area to concentrate on looking for him. Leopards love land marks and this would most definitely be a promising area for him to frequent.

Rhulani male

This interesting male comes from the north and was found earlier this year to the south of Lompfane pan. We believe the area he moves in to be the north-western part of the reserve from Red road, east to probably Khoka moya dam. This area falls within the first section to be concentrated on, so hopefully we’ll have more on this male very shortly.

The young males

We have also found a few up and coming youngsters. These have often been once off sightings, but these youngsters have to keep moving around and are difficult to pinpoint because of the large males around. These males will be staying on the outskirts of the bigger males territories awaiting their chance, waiting for any sign of weakness. 

 

The Females

Main dam female

This is the only female that has given us any good information. She had cubs around Main dam in June 2012. She tends to be a little skittish with the vehicles during the day time, but is a lot more confident at night. This is the female that we have identified as the best female to work on initially. Her two cubs are also on our list to work with. Her territory stretches from Tintswalo east to Main dam and south to Powerlines road.

We believe her to be a fairly young female, probably around four to five years old. The area she frequents was open for a take over and she was quite lucky. Her predecessor in this territory was a female named the Tintswalo female, and she was unfortunately killed by the Matimba males when they first came onto the Manyeleti. It just goes to show what an impact these Lions have on the area. Sadly, as she was a very relaxed female, it impacted our leopard sightings in a big way.

Unidentified Leopards

So far in this project we have identified a few hotspots for leopard. The best places for us to start are the area around the lodge as well as the skybeds area. Most of the unidentified leopard sightings have been close to these areas and the more we work on these areas, the pieces of the puzzle will start to fall into place.

A lot depends on relaxing as many females as we can. Firstly to understand the dynamics better and to give our guests an an even better safari experience.