Leopard kill discovered!

Here is some very exciting news, even before the Kamonande Leopard Project research team arrive at Kamonande, the presence of leopards were witnessed.

Peter Odell and his wife Cheryl were on the Reserve the past weekend and they discovered the carcass of a young zebra, and they determined that it was a leopard kill.

Here is the story in Peter's own words:

Yesterday morning (27th) while cycling at about 9:30, up towards the Serengeti in the mist I heard distress yelping which I recognised as a zebra cry.

I continued cycling and returned home for breakfast. After breakfast Cheryl & I went out in our Terracan for a drive. On the circular drive past No 23 entrance I spotted a bird of prey circling. I said to Cheryl "perhaps there has been a kill because I heard the Zebra cries earlier.

We travelled on the road to the West (before the lapa) and after crossing the stone bed, came across signs of a scuffle and drag marks on the road. Cheryl looked out her window and saw blood on the ground. I got out of the vehicle and walked around to investigate. We saw the strange imprint on giraffe spoor on top of the scene, but there was definitly a few leopard prints. On returning to my side of the vehicle I then saw the young zebra lying dead on some rocks nearby. It had been dragged about 10m and some of its hind quarter was eaten.

I fetched my camera to record the scene. I were standing some 4m from the dead zebra we heard a faint grunt and rustle of grass coming from behind the scene. We returned to the car. I estimate that we discovered the scene at 10:45. We then drove past, turned round and observed the scene from a distance until 12:15 but no animals returned or came by.

Peter, thank you very much for this information. I will pass it on to the research team and I am sure they will also be very excited about this news.

If any of you come across signs of leopards or any other predators, on or near Kamonande, please send me your contributions and we will make it part of the research data for this project. Photos of the animals and/or their tracks are always an advantage, if you are so lucky to get any.

This is exciting stuff and I am really looking forward to the results of this project.

All the best until I post again!

Project Inception

This is inception of the Kamonande Leopard Project.
The complete project is documented in the Project Charter that can be accessed here.

Why did we name it the 'Kamonande Leopard Project'?

1. Leopards are the only member of the Big 5 that still naturally occur outside national parks and dedicated game reserves.
2. Leopards are at the top of the food chain and they are highly respected and admired by the majority of people.
3. Ingwe, means leopard, and the Ingwe Leopard Project is the sponsor of the Kamonande project. They also provides the resources and the manpower to conduct the research.
4. From time to time there are leopards at Kamonande, but only a few people were lucky to spot them and many others noticed leopard tracks in the past at various locations.

How can every shareholder contributes to the research project?
Every-one that visit Kamonande and spot any predator during the next year, is asked to do the following:

• Identify the predator, and if possible the gender of the animal,
• If record the location where it was spotted on a GPS or look for natural landmarks on order for us to accurately identify the location,
• If possible, please photograph the animal, as many photos as possible from as many angles as possible, without stressing the animal or getting yourself into danger, obviously.
• Look for other members of the species, mates, cubs, etc.
• The date and time of sighting is also important for the research data to be accurate.

Please e-mail all this information to me as soon as possible, and I will pass the information on to the research team for inclusion.

Please invite your children and friends to follow the research project and learn from the experts. This is golden opportunity for you and them to exposed to the science side of nature. Who knows, it might just inspire some of the younger generation to pursue a career in the natural science.