Land restoration lures a leopard

A lucky spotting on Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve has the reserve’s owner and conservationists over the moon about the first “savannah” leopard seen in the Great Karoo in almost half a century.

Mount Camdeboo owner Iain Buchannan says the sighting on 13 July was “a dream come true and confirms our status as a Big Five reserve. We’ve suspected for some time that there is at least one leopard on the property but no conclusive proof has been forthcoming till now”.

Buchannan is understating the case: the animal was photographed in a camera trap last year but a tiny technicality invalidated the capture.

About the same time, I spent a couple of nights “glamping” very close to where the leopard was observed.

Several times I heard baboon calling in alarm in the kloof below me and, while they’ll do the same for caracal, the level of urgency in their voices suggested a deadlier predator.

The latest sighting is corroborated by video footage.

Helicopter pilot Grant Soulè and veterinarian Keith Ross were on a game capture flight over Mount Camdeboo, 80km south of Graaff-Reinet, looking for buffalo and kudu, when they spotted the big cat “posing on a rock like something out of The Lion King.

“We weren’t sure whether it was a lion or cheetah,” said Soulè.

“However, the shape was wrong for a cheetah and it was sitting differently to a lion. That’s when we started to get excited.”

The helicopter spent about two minutes above the animal, with Ross filming to establish the leopard’s size, weight, gender and general health. Soulè, an experienced game capture pilot, says the leopard was not stressed by the helicopter.

He adds that this was by far the largest leopard he has seen from the air during his career; an adult male in its prime, weighing about 80kg.

“This means it is definitely not a Cape mountain leopard, which is much smaller.”

There is no genetic difference between “mountain leopards” and those typically associated with the plains and scrub of the lowveld.

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Size disparity is largely a result of species of prey and the frequency the cats eat.

Bigger leopards typically have a much smaller range of migration due to a greater abundance of prey in their immediate environment.

Local historian David McNaughton says the last “lowveld” leopard photographed in the Graaff-Reinet area was an animal shot in 1977.

Mount Camdeboo owner Buchannan says the dream of transforming Mount Camdeboo into a Big Five reserve stems from the day his father bought what was then a cattle farm in 1996.

“We started rewilding the land based on the concepts of understanding, sustainable restoration, education, growth and celebration.”

Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve opened as a commercial operation in 2007 and is managed by Newmark Hotels and Reserves.

“It has taken a huge amount of time, effort and planning to reintroduce species that occurred here before they were wiped out two centuries ago.

“Reintroducing leopard was always going to be challenging; purely because they don’t always stay within fenced areas.”

The sighting comes with a sense of great reward, says Buchannan.

“By rewilding the environment, we have made it conducive for other species to return. In many ways, the leopard is telling us the land restoration process is complete and the environment is good enough for him to return of his own accord.”

Reserve manager Ulrich Schutte says the valley where the leopard was spotted is one of the remotest spots on the 14 000 hectare property with no roads going in or out.

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