Felicity has Cubs!

We’ve just received word from Jeannine McManus of the Landmark Foundation confirming that Felicity has two cubs!

It’s estimated that the two cubs are between three and four months old, putting their approximate date of birth somewhere Christmas last year. In October last year we found out that Felicity had a new man in her life, sharing the same territory as her, which is a strong indication that they were mating – now we know that the conception was successful, and that Felicity is a mother! We are still able to track Felicity’s movements with the GPS collar that was fitted to her last year by the Landmark Foundation which should still be good for another 12 months or so – that is if all goes according to plans, because as we’ve experienced over the course of this project so far, nature doesn’t like to be scheduled.

The good news is that we can keep an eye on her movements and with a little bit of luck, we will hopefully get video footage of the two youngsters. Piet Kruger, a farmer in the Baviaanskloof, is monitoring her movements and has set up our camera traps where he thinks we might get some good footage of the cubs. Jeannine is also going to be heading up to the Baviaanskloof shortly to set up their cameras and I’ve also just bought two new camera traps that I will send up with her, so it looks like we might have enough to catch these two on camera!

It’s all very exciting and a great boost in morale to know that there are still leopards being born in the Cape Fold Mountain Belt. I’ll keep you posted on all the updates and hopefully some footage of the two young cubs.