Fifteen Leopards for Limietberg!

Published: 13 September 2010

Two months after the official start of the CLT Boland project Limietberg survey, we are proud to announce that we have identified no less than 12 leopards in this area – 9 males and 3 females! There are three more leopards for which we need more photos before we can make proper identifications. We are starting to learn more about individual leopards’ home ranges, and some interesting patterns are starting to emerge.

Very good news is that BF1’s cubs are both still alive and well (see here). We recently retrieved this photo from the camera in Wemmershoek – and one can clearly see how much the cubs have grown.

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The Wemmershoek valley seems to be quite a productive place – there is another female (BF3) with at least one cub in the eastern area known as Olifantshoek. This photo was taken some time ago, and it looks like the cub is about to receive a good hiding from mom...

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Our list of mammal species have grown to 21 (including leopard), and we’ve had some very nice pictures of the more common species like large-spotted genet, porcupine and klipspringer, as well as more elusive species like caracal, African wildcat and water mongoose (see below).

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We’ve also had some interesting bird pictures, including these beautiful Cape eagle owls.

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We are currently scouting the southern section of our study area (including Jonkershoek, Hottentots-Holland and Kogelberg) for suitable camera trap locations, starting in Jonkershoek and systematically working our way down – and we look forward to exciting leopard discoveries in this beautiful region. Once the Limietberg survey draws to a close we’ll be moving our entire arsenal of cameras down for the CLT Boland project Southern Survey, which will then commence closer to the end of the year.

Until next time, greetings from the Boland!

Jeannie & Anita

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