Just when I thought it was going to get quieter with leopard and cheetah sightings, we get even more. What a terrific sighting of that leopard drinking at NK. Then there was another visit from a female leopard with two cubs at EP; there is also great audio of vervet monkeys alarm calling on that video.

The video of the leopard drinking at NK is on the Africam front page.

The url to watch the female leopard with her cubs is at:

http://tmogul.com/tweet/4SU6A

I honestly didn’t think we would see cheetah again for some time, yet we saw another two the other day. Unfortunately they were on the move and it was sunset, so it was difficult to get a good visual of both of them. One of them did pass right below the camera though and we had an excellent view of it; it was a sub-adult, so the other was possibly the mother. Gestation for cheetah is 90-95 days. Litters of 1-6 are born any time of the year. Weaning starts at 8 weeks when cubs first accompany mother away from the lair, but may not be complete for another 4 months; permanent teeth erupt at 8-9 months. They are independent at 18 months. Cheetah cubs are extremely vulnerable: in the Serengeti lions kill about 70% of them, and only 5% live to independence!!!!! They also fall prey to spotted hyaenas and leopards. Survival is higher in the thicker bush of the Kruger NP, but this doesn’t mean that you see them more often.

Below is a picture of the sub-adult cheetah:

We also have a good video of two male giraffe neck wrestling, twining their necks together and trying to push the opponent off balance. Neck twining also occurs in courtship and as a preliminary to serious fights. The two males sparring in our video are not fully grown and therefore they are just playing around. Mature bulls fight for dominance by striking at the opponents legs and body with full force. The length of the neck makes the impact of the blows seem slower than they are, but the sounds of the impacts can be heard from 100 metres away. Broken jaws and necks, and even combatants being knocked unconscious have been recorded.

The url to watch the two male giraffe sparring is at:

http://www.africam.com/wildlife/giraffesnecking

Below is a picture of the female leopard with her one cub:

Thank-you to everyone for submitting the videos and photos.

Happy camming

Cheers for now

Josh

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