More Africa: Sabi Sands for Leopards

Shot on Location:

Mala Mala and Mashatu Game Reserves, South Africa/Botswana in 2009 with the Canon 1D Mark III, 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4 and 70-200/2.8.

The Sabi Sand Game Reserve, adjacent to Krueger Park in South Africa, is famous for its leopard sightings. Mala Mala Camp is located within Sabi Sands and It's where I first saw the Kikilezi female. It was awesome watching Kiki interact with her two year old cub, knowing that the cub would be leaving Mom shortly.

I was lucky to observe Kiki on 5 more visits to Mala Mala where she reigned as the matriach and successfully raised many cubs to adulthood. Her most recent and last litter, twins, was in May 2016 (the same time as her daughter, the Emsagweni female).

Note: leopards meander between camps and over at Londolozi next door, Kiki was known as the Xidulu female. She was the daughter of the infamous Ngoboswan female and sister to the Tamboti and Campbell Koppies females. Sadly, Kiki passed in May 2017 at 16 years old.