LEOPARDS AT MALAMALA GAME RESERVE

Family Felidae Mass ± 60 kg / 132 lbs Height ± 60 cm / 23 inches Charging speed 80 km/h / 50mph Potential longevity 21 years Gestation period 3 1/2 months

The leopard is the least seen and least understood of Africa's "Big Five". It has been described as the perfect predator. It harbours enormous strength and supreme beauty, pound for pound it is perhaps the most powerful of the world's great cats. It is a perfectly tuned killing machine, dispatching its prey quickly and quietly. The pinnacle of refinement on the cat blueprint, the leopard moves with a fluid grace, a prince of the night.

Theodore Roosevelt described hunting a leopard: ".. The wounds would have knocked the fight out of any animal less plucky and savage than the leopard. But not even in Africa is there a beast of more unflinching courage than this spotted cat."

The leopard is a perfectly built cat with a beautifully spotted coat, the largest spotted cat in Africa. The average mass of a fully grown male is 60 kg (135 lbs) and a female ranging between 30 kg (66 lbs) and 40 kg. At the shoulder the male can measure up to 80 cm (31,5"). After a gestation period of about 106 days one or two young are born which weigh approximately 500 g (1 lb).

Leopards have a wide habitat tolerance, they are solitary and secretive animals except during mating season or when a female is accompanied by juveniles. They are primarily nocturnal, however when undisturbed and protected they may be seen moving during daylight hours and are often seen lying up in trees. They usually hoist their kills up into trees to keep out of the reach of other predators and scavengers.

They prey on a great diversity of animals, usually less than 70 kg (154 lb) in weight, with impala being the dominant prey species at MalaMala.

MalaMala Game Reserve offers some of the finest viewing of these cunning and elusive cats and Gerald Hinde used MalaMala as his choice to document and photograph these great cats for his book "The Leopard".

Current Leopards of Mala Mala: Matshapiri Female Rock Drift Male  (Tjololo) Newington Male Ngoboswan Female Bicycle Crossing Male Hogvaal Female Chellahanga Male Jakkalsdraai Female Hlarulini Male Kapen Female White Cloth Female Rollercoaster Female White Cloth Son Toulon Female Kikilezi Female Dudley Female Harry's Female Manyeleti Male Beaumont's Female Campbell Koppies Female
Leopards no longer seen at MalaMala: Hlabatini Female Selati Female Chellahanga Female Short Tail Male Newington Female Paradise Valley Son Tlebe Rocks Male Beaumonts Male Mlowathi Female Shaws Female