Zak recaptured!

Published: 22 October 2010

On Monday, the Cape Leopard Trust's Gouritz team were reunited with an old friend; Zak. Zak (or GM9) was the first leopard to be captured and collared in the region, and on Monday he graciously consented to be recaptured in one of our traps. We were glad to see that he's still in excellent condition and appears to be thriving despite regularly trekking right across the rugged Rooiberg Mountains. Zak has gained approximately four kilograms since we captured him at the end of May, although he still has some way to go before he'll reach a similar size to his neighbour, the legendary Oom Pep (who we captured three weeks ago).

We released Zak safely with a new GPS collar, and will continue to monitor his movements with great interest over the next few months. The large size difference between him and Oom Pep suggests that Zak is still a relatively young adult male, and it will be fascinating to see how he interacts with his much larger neighbour.

We would like to thank Mr. Richard Barry of Vredelust Farm for providing us with a steady supply of bait for our traps, and would especially like to thank Mr. Chris Steer of Danielskraal Farm, who lent us a bakkie while the Leopardmobile was being repaired. Without Mr. Steer’s assistance, we would have had to close our traps, and would have missed out on this valuable capture! We would also like to thank CapeNature for their unstinting support of our research activities.

Gareth Mann

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Photos provided courtesy of Chris Steer

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