When it comes to the lions of Kruger National Park, the lockdown has presented them with a great chance to enjoy the park without the constant human traffic around.

As much as many would like to believe that some recent leopard sightings in and around the Western Cape are a sign of something similar, that’s not really the case.

We all enjoyed seeing the footage of a Cape leopard spotted in the mountains above L’Ormarins, the main estate in the Anthonij Rupert Wyne portfolio in Franschhoek, but wildlife biologist Jeannie Hayward of the Cape Leopard Trust says these sightings don’t have much to do with the lockdown.

Before we get to that, here’s the most recent leopard footage. Shared by Geo Parkes & Sons Timber Merchants, who are on the Garden Route, the exact location of the sighting has not been disclosed.

It has been widely shared on WhatsApp, with people saying the sighting took place in Jonkershoek, but that is not the case.

These cubs are quite something:

Knowing that these cats are still roaming, and breeding, in our mountain ranges brings a real smile to my face.

Back to the Cape Leopard Trust, with more on where they can be found:

…there are wild leopards living free and unfenced in almost all of the mountainous regions of the Western Cape – and they have been there since long before lockdown – even long before human settlement of the Cape Province.

Leopards in the Cape mountains are notoriously elusive and shy of people, and the best way to study them is by using remote-sensing field cameras. It’s not unusual to get images of leopards from the mountain slopes above Boland and Overstrand towns like Paarl, Stellenbosch, Grabouw, Gordon’s Bay and Kleinmond.

…leopards have always been here – they have been caught on camera multiple times before and these sightings do not necessarily have anything to do with the lockdown…Much hype and sensation have been created around images that would during ‘normal times’ have gone unnoticed.

This sighting below took place in Pringle Bay last week, and taken by one of the Ask Patrollers on the gravel road towards Rooiels:

Back to Hayward, who did add a little caveat, though:

…it is indeed entirely possible for leopards to be a bit bolder and move lower down on mountain slopes than they usually would now that there is so much less human movement and activity. It is of course not just the physical presence of humans that is much less, but also our cacophony of sounds (traffic, construction etc) and smells (exhaust fumes, processing plants etc), which, collectively, usually act as a powerful deterrent to most wildlife…

Perhaps we could all use this time of lockdown to reflect on how we perceive the wild spaces around us and how we should conduct ourselves in these spaces, knowing that wildlife like leopards and so many other species were there first – and our actions are driving them closer and closer to the edge of existence.

Hear, hear.

I’m just stoked to know that they’re out there, and breeding, so that we can continue to enjoy their presence for many years to come.

[source:capeleopardtrust]