Diary

Ziana, the female leopard on her last

Ziana lies in the weak winter sun alongside the fence between camp 1 and 2. She looks around all the time and searches for Zoy, next to her in camp 2. She and Zoy were together on Valentine’s Day and paired regularly. Leopards carry for approximately 104 days. Is Ziana in her last days of pregnancy, or is her searching for Zoy a final sign that she is not pregnant? I will give her a few more days and then permanently open the gate beneath the catwalk between camp 1 and 2 – then they can use both camps (+/- 2 ha).

Eagle on meat

An African hawk eagle makes a quick breakfast visit to the remaining piece of carcass.

Live tests - Leopard.tv website

The champagne glasses are ready. Today, 4 June 2012, exactly at 04:04 we are going live with our new design and website. A few test videos are taken before 4 pm.

Blue wildebeest and warthogs

The warthogs appear in their hordes at the feeding place. Today, 4 June 2012, is the first day of winter that we are feeding lucerne. The bluewildebeest smell it from afar and a large group arrives at Witsand.

Blue wildebeest

Another group of bluewildebeest swarms around the lucerne and fodder pellets.

Gemsbuck

The noise of the generator does not deter the small group of gemsbuck to start on the lucerne before the other game (Video 2).

Starlings

The cool winter air and cold water do not prevent the starlings to take a nice, cold bath (Video 3).

Blue wildebeest and warthogs

I literally jump from one camera to the other to determine whether everything is in order for the live internet change over just after 4 pm. The large herd of bluewildebeest and amazingly many warthogs are busy eating the lucerne and fodder pellets (Video 4).

It is 4 June, 4pm, 4min and 4 sec. Yes, 4 is my lucky number and the date and time to go live with our website: www.leopard.tv, were therefore not chosen at random.

We toast on a successful live change over and the first few smses and bbms are sent. Rapidly a few answers are returned, from “it looks great” and “ congratulations”, and “can we still look at the videos more rapidly ”. Photographs are taken and we all believe the leopard/wildlife site could become a quality website worldwide, of which we can all be proud, and already are. May our viewers, members, advertisers, etc. enjoy every moment.

A few impala and warthogs

The website is now live and everything looks well. We see animals everywhere. The bluewildebeest at Witsand did not leave much for the few impala (Video 5).

Heron

Some history. The first time in the nearly four years of the camera project, I film a heron at the dam. Blue, with a red neck and white feathers beneath the bill.

Slowly and dignified the heron walks and searches for something in the dam to catch. This is a very large heron. May the luck of filming a heron for the first time be a good sign of great things to come for the website. In the background a bushbuck or kudu barks – it sounds ominous in the valley between the trees and mountains (Video 6).

Ziana, the female leopard on camera

It is very apt that our viewers, within the first 1 ½ hours after going live, can see a leopard. Ziana lies at the bottom of camp 1, eating her meat. In the same video the full colour film changes to infrared to give viewers a good idea of the excellent apparatus we use, in order to follow these shy animals even at night.

She hears something and quickly lifts her head. She straightens her ears and looks around. On the microphone we can definitely hear something. Ziana has finished eating. She is sitting upright and washes herself, as all leopards do after they have eaten.

It really seems as if she is not pregnant. We will wait another few days.

The male leopard, Zoy is close to Ziana, the female leopard

The sounds on the microphone came from Zoy, the male leopard next door in camp 2. He walks past the eastern side of the camp, sits for a while on a rock, looks around, and walks on.

Zebras at the lucerne

A herd of zebra goes for the lucerne in the now already dark night. They almost stand against one another in order to reach the lucerne. Such huddling and eating together often lead to biting and kicking, endangering the foal between them.

The foal tries to drink but the mother does not feel like it. Indifferently she "kicks" in the air as if to say to the foal, "stand aside for a while".

Blue wildebeest stand their ground

The bluewildebeest are standing their ground, not willing to share the lucerne with other game. A group of zebra (another group than the one at Kudu Hide) appears with two foals. They chase the bluewildebeest away. The old farm donkey also tries its luck at the lucerne (Video 8).

Kudus and genet

A few days ago, at Leopard’s Sleeping Place, I saw the same thing. The kudus, peacefully eating from the lucerne, while the genet is eating away on the carcass, which lies next to the dam.