SANParks.org Forums

@AFRICAT - WOW!!! Fantastic sighting and amazing action shot!

The Male - I think it is a newbie - need to check a bit more later on tonight.
The Female - None other than Safran!
Thank you for posting!

sure is Safran... sure...
the way she reply

first time I see again Safran, thank you Africat

Fantastic pics AFRICAT

That male could well be the big boy we saw at the Grootkolk waterhole last Nov.

The female also ran from him then.

KTP February 2012
Stay with me! the pics are not of good quality, but every leopard sighting is very special!!
I've e-mailed the pics to AstroMatt a while ago and he identified the two as Cagn and then as an unnamed
one, now Amur.

21 Febr. 2012: Cagn: Very early in the morning, bad light, we drove from TR and just past Houmoed waterhole
we saw this young female leopard along the road to the left side. She was very skittish, hide
behind bushes and then disappeared over the dune. Not many chances for decent pics, managed this one!

Cagn by carien8, on Flickr

23 Febr. 2012: Amur: On a morning drive from TR, just before Auchterlonie, this female leopard was
crossing the road to the dune side. She walked for a while along the dune and then disappeared over it.
2 pics of her.

Amur 2 by carien8, on Flickr


Amur 1 by carien8, on Flickr

Always a magnificent sighting!
Thanks AstroMatt!

and thank you

Sorry for the absence but i've been travelling round a rainy england!
Great sightings all round!!
AFRICAT...WOW What an amazing sighting. Certainly Safran, and she looks like she is a strong lady

The male certainly looks like a new guy..and he looks big!...p@m do you have any pics of the male you saw??
Thanks also for the sighing of Khomani. She was last seen at the end of dec 2011...has anybody seen her more recently?

@Carien....thanks both for sending me your sighitngs and for posting them on here. It's good for everyone to see such special moments

@Carien - AstroMatt did tell me about receiving your sightings report, but thank you so much for posting on this ID thread as well! Great sepia pic of Cagn, even in the bad light!

@AstroMatt - Thanx for confirming AFRICAT's newbie Grootkolk male!

Any other leopard sightings out there? As Dwyka3 says 'every leopard sighting is very special!!'

wanderw, Scouter, anne-marie, p@m, and AstroMatt - my sincere thanks to each of you for your infectious enthusiasm…I need your help once again please.

I'm trying to ID the leopards we've seen over the years, and would like to verify whether or not this is Tswana. These were taken in Oct. 2009 on the upper dune road at the waterhole that is set back off the road that you can drive down to ( I don't my map right now). She had a cub with her, so I would be interested to see if it can be ID'd as well. If this is her, it is 2 years earlier than previously reported, so perhaps she can be ID'd as the mom of another of our cherished KTP leopards. Again, my sincere thanks to each of you who are so gracious to do the footwork in this endeavor.

Mom:






Cub:





(Yikes, the pics look a bit too large...let me know if I need to re-do them)

Thanks AFRICAT for the posts. You are 100% correct that it is Tswana!
It's a great sighting for the project as we now have a much better (but still very rough) age for her.
The cub however i can't ID...sorry. But it does mean that he/she is a new leopard for the guide, which is great

Could i also ask you to send me all the information for your sightings using my spreadsheet, its really useful as it means i collect all the necessary information from you. As i've said to everyone old sightings like yours are really really important to the project as they can really give us a better understanding on the age distribution etc.

Thanks so much and looking forward to seeing any other sightings you have

@AFRICAT - Thank you for posting! Fantastic sighting of Tswana and her previous cub - a newbie for the guide AND this thread!
Looking forward to seeing your other sightings!

WoW Wanderw, great summary on page 34, and work on IDing the KTP leopards.

THE STORY OF LANGKLAAS AS A CUB! The value of historical sightings.
The leopards in this post were positively identified by AstroMatt, many thanks!
The pics were taken on film camera then and scanned into my computer, sorry for the quality!
Early August 2006, we stayed at Groot Kolk for a few days.
On our first day, driving from Nossob to Groot Kolk, we saw Kanna drinking water at Kannaguas at about 13h00.
After quenching her thirst, we followed her in and out of the road towards Groot Kolk.
She turned in at the KAA entrance and just there, behind a tree, she caught a Kori Bustard.
She dragged the carcass all along the riverbed and disappeared to the opposite side.
I thought to myself, why the big effort?

Kanna walking away from Kannaguas

Kanna 1 (1st day) - Copy by carien8, on Flickr

At KAA turnoff

Kanna 3 (1st day) (KAA Turnoff) by carien8, on Flickr

Dragging carcass along riverbed

Kanna 4 (1st day) (Dragging Kori Bustard carcass) by carien8, on Flickr

Second day: We took a morning drive towards Kannaguas and just where Kanna lef the road the previous
day, we saw her again in the road with two cubs! I realised then why she put in such an effort the previous
day, that was to feed her cubs! We followed them slowly, keep a good distance behind them as to disturb
them as little as possible onwards towards Kannaguas. The one cub stayed close to mum but the other
one, Langklaas, was a different story. She was always lacking behind, playful, inquisitive,even waiting for
us and at a stage lied down next to the vehicle in the road. It was amazing, I couln't believe my own eyes!!
We followed them for a long time up to the stage where Kanna and the second cub left the road and crossed
the river. Langklaas was still lacking behind, even lied up on a log next to the road. As if suddenly she
realised that her family was gone, she jumped off the log and started crossing the river. There was a
big herd of wildebeest in the river and when they spotted Langklaas, they sort of formed a line and came
towards her. I was so scared for the little one, but bravely she crossed the river and joined mum and
her sibling. I just knew that this little cub was to become a very special leopard!! We slowly drove onwards
to Kannaguass and just past the waterhole a few jackals went hysterical. To our amazement, there were
the three again! They crossed the road and dissapeared towards the opposite side. And the best of all,
we had this amazing sightings all to ourselves for many hours, no other vehicles in sight. Unfortunately the
second cub could not be identified.

Kanna and cubs in the road

Kanna 5 (2nd day) (with 2 cubs, Langklaas behind) by carien8, on Flickr

Kanna and second cub

Kanna and 2nd Cub 2 by carien8, on Flickr

Langklaas lying next to vehicle

Lying up next to road by carien8, on Flickr

Langklaas

Beautiful little one! by carien8, on Flickr

Langklaas watching us

Too cute! by carien8, on Flickr

Langklaas next to road

Lanklaas 5 (2nd day) by carien8, on Flickr

Kanna and second cub left the road

Kanna and 2nd Cub 4 by carien8, on Flickr

Watching us

044 - Copy by carien8, on Flickr

August 2007 Groot Kolk
I was vey fortunate to meet Langklaas again! It was at about 14h00 when we came back from our drive
and found Langklaas in camp!! She was sitting on the concrete pathway in front of the chalets, walked
down to the waterhole to drink water and then jumped into the tree to the right of the waterhole.
At sundown she came down, drank water again and then walked straight back through
the chalets while we were sipping our sundowners!! I was stunned for how relaxed she was!!

Langklaas at Groot Kolk 2007


Mid August 2007 (Grootkolk Waterhole) by carien8, on Flickr

By e-mailing these pics to AstroMatt, he can now safely say that Langklaas is the cub of Kanna.
Also that the age of Langklaas at the time was about 5 months.
Although all leopards are very special, Langklaas holds a special place in my heart!!
I would love to see her again!!

thanks Dwyka3
maybe one of the cubs could be Safran

Hi Anne-Marie!
AstroMatt has a feeliing that it could be Saffran, but no positive identification.
Unfortunately I do not have any other pics of the second cub, was always
in front close to Kanna.
Apparently Saffran is still close to Kanna.
Langklaas has moved down south as far as the Nossob area and was seen
by AstoMatt near Marie se Draai in January of this year.

@Carien - thank you for sharing that special story on this thread! What a sighting!

Langklaas has been seen near Nossob(both sides) since September 2011 when she was seen mating with Kgosi.
Now some more news thanx to Blackie - He saw a leopard and cub half way between Nossob and Cubitje Quap in April this year, unfortunately ID was not possible due to distance. Wonder if this thread will perhaps see a cub of Langklaas's soon (We don't know whether the mom was Langklaas, hoping someone else saw the mom and cub and will post so we can perhaps make an ID)