The Challenges Facing The Nhlanguleni Female – Londolozi Blog

Leopards are among the most adaptable creatures in the wild, using their stealth, strength, and solitary nature to survive. But even the most resilient predators face challenges, and the Nhlanguleni Female has recently been seen with a severe limp in her back left leg. How she sustained the injury remains a mystery—no one witnessed the event, and the limp was first noticed on her in a sighting at the end of September.

Initially skittish she spent a lot of time in the Sand River, now relaxed she makes up the majority of leopard viewing west of camp.

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Life as a solitary leopard is already incredibly tough. They must hunt for themselves, defend their territory, and raise their young—all tasks that are challenging enough even without an injury. So when a leopard, like the Nhlanguleni female, becomes injured, everything suddenly gets a lot harder. Hunting, marking territory, and caring for cubs become more difficult, and survival is a daily struggle.

The Nhlanguleni Female pauses whilst dragging a partially eaten impala through a dry riverbed.

To better understand the current challenge she faces, it helps to look at where she is in her life’s journey. Female leopards typically become independent at around 18 months, starting with a small portion of their mother’s territory, which is ceded to them and gradually seeking to expand it. By three years old, they begin mating, and by four, they are usually raising their first cubs. It often takes a few failed attempts before they succeed in raising a cub to independence.

The Nhlanguleni Female herself has had her share of setbacks, managing to raise just two cubs as an intact litter, the Nkuwa Female and Finfoot Female, to independence in 2018. An impressive feat, yet many other litters since then have not survived.

The Nkuwa and Finfoot Females, her only successfully raised cubs, were quite an achievement.

One of two sisters born to the Nhlanguleni Female, both of whom made it to independence, the first intact litter to do so in 7 years.

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A daughter of the Nhlanguleni female, born into a litter of two, both of which survived to independence.

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Now, as she gets older, life’s challenges are only growing. Older leopards tend to have smaller litters, and injuries like this one don’t help. Still, wild animals are incredibly resilient, and I’m confident that she’ll bounce back from this limp. Leopards have an uncanny ability to recover and continue thriving despite setbacks.

The Nhlanguleni Female stares into the distance. Frequently been seen in and around the Sand River.

The exact cause of her injury remains a mystery, but we suspect it could have resulted from an attempted hunt or possibly a confrontation with another female leopard. The latter seems more likely, considering the dynamics in this area. As she ages, younger females are looking to expand their territories. Her range is adjacent with both her daughter, the Nkuwa Female, and the Ngungwe Female. Either one could have been involved in a clash. These younger leopards are in their prime and may have a slight advantage in strength, but they lack the years of experience she possesses. That counts for a lot in the leopard world.

Born in 2011, the Nhlanguleni Female is slowly approaching old age, but if there’s one thing you can never do, it’s count out a female leopard. She has weathered plenty of challenges over the years, and I have no doubt that this is just another obstacle she’ll overcome. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on how she’s doing.