Getting our spots in a row

Getting our spots in a row!

The Leopard sightings at sand rivers have been great in the last few months and they can only get better!

We are trying to Identify each and every leopard we see with the help of close up photos taken by our guide’s and guests to get an idea of how many we have as well as get to know who belongs where.

How do we do this you may ask? we use spot patterns.

A spot pattern refers to the upper most row of spots on the leopard’s cheeks. These are the spots above the upper line of whiskers. It gets slightly tricky from time to time as often these spots aren’t all in a straight line.

The second part of interpreting a spot pattern is that it refers to the number of spots first on the right cheek and then the left cheek. This means that this male has 3 spots on his right cheek and 2 on his left cheek. so his new name is Milk Wood Male 3:2 (Milkwood refers to the tree he was first seen in.

This male was seen yesterday with an Impala up a tree.

when we have a database of Leopards we can start putting together a family tree to get an understanding of how these mysteriuus cats live there lives.

If any previous guest's from Sand Rivers Selous have any mugshots of leoperds we would love to add them to the database.