The Northern Tuli Predator Project

The Northern Tuli PredatorProjectNovember 2008 NewsThe month of November was fairly quite for my research project, since I wasgearing up for a month of studying. A guiding course was lying ahead and thusthe amount of time devoted to leopard & lion monitoring was somewhat reduced.Due to the fact that I could not spend much time in the field, I did however haveplenty of extra ‘eyes’ in the bush – doing some scouting for me. Twelve cameratraps were deployed across the western & northern parts of Mashatu. Twocamera traps were placed out at a specific location, with some blood scentbetween them, hoping to attract any predators walking along the footpath. Thecamera traps are digital camera units placed inside a protective metal housing(due to elephants) and also bolted into the ground (due to elephants) especiallyalong animal foot paths leading to water. It is truly amazing to see how manyanimal species walk along these paths, but also how frequently rare species,such as Aardvark, are picked up. The primary purpose of the camera traps is tohelp me determine what leopards are moving in certain areas and also whatother species, especially brown hyenas, can be seen.Rare Aardvark seen on one of the camera traps earlier this year.Predator DrivesDue to the fact that I was away for most of the month, I was only available toconduct 4 drives with a total of 13 guests. On one of the drives we were after thenotorious big male leopard of central Mashatu – Skebengwa! Soon after our firststop for searching for any VHF radio signal from the collar, did we get a good

earing heading due west. After some amazing off-road driving by our rangerDan, did we find Skebengwa, but he was not alone…We found him walking with an adult female leopard. Leopards are solitary cats,like all cats, except lions, and when an adult male and female join up there isvery good chance that they will mate. As we watched the two leopard lying in theshade of a Sheppard’s tree we decided to drive away to enjoy the stunningAfrican sunset with some cold Gin & Tonics. Which was great as always!After the drinks we went back to the leopards and found that the female wasenticing the male to mate, but to our amazement he would not have any of it! Shetried and tried but the big male was just relaxing – not interested what so ever!The interaction was incredible to see and after spending some time with them didwe decide to leave them and head back to camp.It was a very interesting drive, one I will not forget any time soon.Predator regardsAndrei SnymanThe poor female tried and tried but the male was just not in the mood!