A Volunteer's Perspective: Ari Whiteman's Blog on Mating Leopards
Its been a busy and exciting few days here at Karongwe as a cold front has
moved in. Less heat in the middle of the day has meant lots of activity for
pretty much anything with fur or feathers and even more activity for the staff
and volunteers busily recording their behavior. Over the last week we've seen
everything from elephant bulls fighting in the road to lions roaring right next
to the vehicle. However yesterday produced one of the rarest and most exciting
sightings of the winter thus far, as we were fortunate enough to watch Tsavo,
one of our big male leopards, mate with Treacle, one of Karongwe's resident
females. Though the drive to Tsavo's signal required some serious off-roading,
the reward of seeing two leopards in the same frame was well worth the
scratches from overhead buffalo thorns and acacias. We sat, shutters snapping,
in amazement as we witnessed the rituals surrounding leopard mating. It was
surprising how violent the process was, and while serious injury can be a
common result of big cats mating, it was still a bit shocking to see in person.
The two leopards will continue to mate on and off for the next few days, likely
affording us the opportunity to gather even more data on such a scarcely seen
event.
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| The mating pair |
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| Treacle with her distinctive injured right eye |
Overall though, it was an amazing sighting last night, one that many of us
have already added to our list of personal favorites. Unfortunately, we could
not stay with the two beautiful leopards forever, as there was still work to be
done (if you can call tracking wild lions “work”). Hopefully in a few months
we'll start to see fluffy little leopard cubs in Treacle's company!
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| Tsavo mounts Treacle |
Since I'm new here, I would briefly like to take the chance to introduce
myself. My name is Ari Whiteman. I'm a recent college graduate with a degree in
biology from the United States and I'll be here at Karongwe for at least the
next three months as a long term intern. I'm beyond excited to be here
contributing to such amazing research and I look forward to filling you guys in
on our adventures again soon!
Ari Whiteman
Long Term Intern, GVI Karongwe
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