Our report for this week has to be about the progress of our resident female leopard Twinspots and her adorable little cub, who I have named Bouncy because he is always bouncing and jumping through the long grass. Bouncy is now walking on his own and no longer relying on his mother to move him around. We accidently came across the two of them whilst out looking for Twinspots’ two adult cubs who are about one and half and two and a half years old now. Twinspots has moved den sites quite a lot and seems to be heading straight towards KwaMbili which could get very exciting. Bouncy is about two months old now and is a very cautious cub, staying very close to Twinspots all the time which is great news as there a number of young leopard cubs in Thornybush at the moment and already a few have disappeared.
The most bizarre thing seems to be happening here as there have been quite a few tracks found which seem to indicate that all four leopards (Twinspots, Bouncy and the two adult cubs) are spending time together – completely unheard of for such solitary animals which are generally extremely territorial. Well, they are meant to be extremely territorial but as so often happens out here in the bush, the animals do not read the same books as we do and are continuously throwing us some serious surprises!
And I have to mention another highlight this week – finding a massive African Rock Python.
