Leopards are loners. Males and females live in separate territories. The district of a male partially joins those of a couple of females and during mating season, the leopard mates with each female on heat within his territory.

Game reserves: Leopards are represented virtually in all the game parks of southern Africa, but are very difficult to ever see face to face, because they are shy and night-active. The best chances exist in the private Londolozi Game Reserve in the west of the Kruger or on the Okonjima Farm near Otjiwarongo (Namibia).

Leopard

Leopards are shy nocturnal animals and hence not easy to observe. That might be a reason why the leopard is the most prevalent wild cat. It can survive in the most diverse environments, in the jungle as well as in the desert. Its senses of sight, smell and hearing are extraordinarily well developed, and they are good climbers and swimmers.

The leopards of the bushveld weigh on average not more than 70 kilos. Nevertheless, they are able to prey on big animals like impalas and pull them up into trees to save them from other predators. It is reported that once a leopard even pulled a young giraffe of 100kg a couple of metres up into a tree.