Komatipoort leopard is captured and safe

The now renowned, night-stalking, female leopard is safe and unharmed in the temporary large carnivore holding facilities of Wildlife Vets in Mbombela. Dr Cobus Raath and his team of professional wildlife vets will take care of her until a new home is identified to which she can be relocated.

According to Gerrie Camacho, carnivore scientist with the MTPA, the female was safely darted from a house in Komatipoort by Dr Peet Venter, where she was feasting on a domestic cat as her most recent kill. Venter was called out and was the first veterinarian on the scene.

He was able to sedate her with a dart from within the safety of the house. Dr Pieter Kieviet and Dr Philip van Tonder, state vets from Nkomazi, were on the scene soon after. With the three vets at her assistance and once assured she was fully sedated, they assessed her state and applied the necessary medication as is part of standard protocol when dealing with wild animals like this.

Once they were assured that she was in a good condition and state of health, except for some old injuries of minor concern, she was translocated by Kieviet and Van Tonder and handed over at the Nkomazi Toll Plaza to MTPA vet, Dr Gunter Nowak, who transported her to Wildlife Vets.

ALSO READ: Volunteer on Mandela Day to help the less fortunate

After discussions with Kieviet, it was established she has no defects in her physical condition and her teeth and claws were still in very good shape. This is important, because any cat with physical defects such as claws or canines that are broken or shredded or missing, often due to damage caused by using inadequate capture cages, will follow a different route in terms of future decision-making processes.

Numerous people taking videos or seeing her leaping over walls also confirmed she was in good health in terms of her physical mobility. All these aspects are important when selecting a new release site. What makes it even more complex is the fact that she is well habituated to humans as well as vehicles, and therefore cannot be released near areas where there are human settlements.

If she had physical defects, it would also have made it difficult to release her near livestock areas, as they often turn to kill easy prey, especially once relocated to a new area. In her case, and seeing that it is also a female, she is the perfect individual to be reintroduced into an area with low leopard densities but with ecotourism.

Therefore, the next step would be to find such a location. Seeing that she comes from a bovine tuberculosis (BtB) restriction area, she will also be tested for BtB before any further decisions will be made. Currently she will be kept for a short period of time in the holding facilities until her future is decided. It also needs to be understood that this kind of behaviour is very normal for leopard in areas where residential areas are bordering vast wildlife areas that still house a healthy population of these cats.

ALSO READ: Petrol price protests in Mbombela: the two sides of the story

The Lebombo Mountain range as well as the Crocodile River also add to a perfect situation for such an occurrence to happen. It is notable that there has not been more of these scenarios in towns around the area. This female most probably found a place with easy food, and obviously, coming from a high tourism-active area, did not show any fear of humans.

It is therefore more likely that she was merely at ease with human activity than the normal leopard roaming around these areas. She has most likely been enjoying the easy food rather than risking injury, or as some people have suggested, that she might be rabid. That is also something that will be easily detected by Raath and his team.