Spending Time With the Collared Leopard

Nakedi Maputla March 8, 2009

About the Author

Nakedi Maputla is African Wildlife Foundation’s Senior Conservation Scientist. He joined AWF in 2007, working in South Africa's Limpopo region, where he comes from. Nakedi's initial work was focused on studying the great African cats to shape conservation strategies to benefit communities that he… More

The second leopard that we collared has started giving us some valuable data. We already know that there was a considerable amount of space overlap with the previous leopard that died from porcupine inflicted injuries. Unlike the other leopard however, this one seems to spend a considerable amount of time in the open. Up to now I have been lucky to see one of his kills, which was a porcupine.

He is oozing confidence and this can be seen with his movements in front of the car. Last week I spent about seven hours with him, which was a waste of precious time as I was hoping he would do something, but he just slept, and occasionally rolled on the grass to change sides; Lazy leopard!

The good thing is that he seems to be gaining his condition, is not limping anymore and enjoys an arboreal life once in a while. Thrice we found him sitting high in the trees.

Below are a series of photographs of him that I took yesterday.

[caption id="attachment_502" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_503" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_504" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_505" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_506" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_507" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" "] [/caption]