Update From The Field: Leopard Population Dynamics and Conservation

Pru Allison
May 11, 2020

We were delighted to receive these photos from University of Botswana MPhil student Rethabile Setlalekgomo, who works with us on the Leopard Population Dynamics and Conservation project in Khwai Private Reserve (KPR).

These images are from Rethabile’s very first leopard encounter in KPR. ”

The leopards in the area have been habituated to vehicles, making it less of a struggle to see them,” explains the student.

The excellent sighting came as a just reward for Rethabile, at the end of a busy day.

“It was quite refreshing to run into this leopard after a long and exhausting field day,” she agrees. “Leopards spend most of the day hidden in trees and hunt in the evenings.”

Despite the busy day she’d had, the leopard enthusiast sprung into action and began taking these identity shots of the bi cat. “Getting ID shots of a leopard can be difficult,” she tells us. “But this leopard made it easy for us to capture all angles perfectly. The ID shots are used for population monitoring of leopards in the reserve.”