The work of the Ingwe Leopard Project is study the behaviour, distribution and density of leopards outside of protected nature reserves. The true meaning of this was even more apparent this morning. When driving not on the research area but on a main highway road towards Lydenburg the ILP team were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a beautiful young female leopard relaxing on the side of the road, most possibly a female sighted previously on our current research area. The dangers facing the leopards outside of protected areas are phenomenal, roads kills are just one of the problems experienced by leopards not in formally protected areas. This leopard sat literally only a meter from cars traveling 120km/hr and even when we turned back to get a closer she only moved a few meters from the road. Other sightings of large male have also been recorded frequently using the road. It is a sad story that the habitats of leopards outside the protected areas are so fragmented that territories of some individuals now include dangerous man made rivers which leopards have no choice but to cross. This particular stretch of road has already been the cause of several leopard deaths (see below, a leopard killed just 500m from sighting above). The Ingwe leopard project has already helped passing a legislation that the grass on the side of the must be cut back a few meters so that the leopards do not step straight on to the road. However even this is not enough to save them all. More must be done!!!
Written by Emma Loader, ILP Researcher
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