Thursday 8 Sep was an important day for us, as it was the day that the cheetahs were released to free roam on the Reserve. We had three brothers who up until now had been in a large enclosure until they were mature enough to be released. We do already have at least one free roaming cheetah, a young female, so the plan is that she will team up with one of the boys. The release was a bit of an anti-climax however, in that I thought that once the enclosure gate was open they would bolt for the wild. However what really happened was one of them tentatively came out, grabbed the fresh carcass that was outside the gate to entice them out, and then dragged it back inside the enclosure. All three of them had a meal then went to sleep in the shade inside the enclosure. Anyway the gate has been left open and each day the seem to be roaming a bit further away from the enclosure, but they are not yet ready to leave the familiarity of their old home behind just yet.
I know the release has not been well received by the troop of Vervet Monkeys which hang around the nearby water point.
The other cat thing that happened the night before was that I finally got to see a leopard in the wild. I was on an observation post (OP) at about 0230 in the morning when something made me turn around and look behind. About 5 m away was a leopard who had been stalking up on me (out of curiosity). Immediately that it realised I was human, it bolted away. It was so amazing as every other animal I have seen, you can hear them moving through the bush, but the leopard was totally silent when it was stalking. I still don’t know what made me turn around. Unfortunately, no photos as it all happened so quick and it was in the dark (I did try and take a photo of a hippo the night before through the night vision goggles, but it didn’t work out). And for Mum, leopards will not attack people, unless they are cornered or threatened, so there was no risk.
Bye for now.
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| The three young brothers, taken earlier before their release. |
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| Two of the brothers in an 'attack pose', trying to get at Oertjies the dog. |
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| The Vervet Monkeys which live (lived?) about 200 metres up the road from the cheetah enclosure. |
Golly, that leopard story put shivers down my spine!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you have actually seen a leopard in the wild now. Do you know how many are in the park? The cheetah boys are so magnificent to look at; hope they do well.
ReplyDeleteStay safe....Lots of love.
There are four leopards free roaming the Reserve and one cub in an enclosure who was rescued from a river with a broken leg. Once he is old enough he will also be released to free roam. The leopards are our current top end predator as the lion sanctuary is seperate (A. there is too many of them to be environmentally sustainable, and B. they are dangerous to humans).
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