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I have always believed that a male tiger or male leopard plays no role in the raising of the cubs.
Two rare sightings have caused me to rethink this idea.
At Londolozi Game Reserve, Camp Pan male, a magnificent male
leopard and father of Vomba Female's cub, approaches her den
where a single cub is hidden in the rocks.
Camp Pan announces his presence with a chuffing sound. Vomba
responds and greets Camp Pan with cuffing, rolling and plenty of
chuffing.
She turns towards the den and in a soft chuffing call, calls the
cub from the rocks to meet his father.
Briefly three leopards are trapped in the frame of my camera as
Camp Pan meets and greets his offspring.
After the greetings, Camp Pan remains in the vicinity of the den
and several times gives the rasping territorial call. Then he
circle the den site, marking strenuously prominent rocks trees
and bushes.
Camp Pan Male marks on top of several termite mounds, presumably
to let the scent of the marking fluid drift across on the wind.
He is extremely thorough in his task and stops several times to
pull a Flehmen Face as he processes chemical messages left by
other leopards.
It becomes obvious to me as he continues to give his territorial
call, that he is staking out the den site, making it out of
bounds, zoning it off to other male leopards, so to speak.
At Tiger Canyons, Ron a 10 years old male tiger approaches
Tigress Shadow's den site.
In the dense thicket Tigress Shadow has 3 cubs hidden away. They
are just 6 weeks old.
Ron is the father of the 3 cubs and he is meeting his cubs for
the first time.
Shadow is initially aggressive as he approaches the den site and
then she "chuffs" him in a friendly fashion. Ron returns the
compliment and moves forward to greet the cubs.
In the dense bush I am unable to see the greeting but I can hear
it. The soft chuffing sound of the cubs and the deeper sound of
the male tiger's chuff intermingle. Shadow remains outside the
den waiting anxiously.
After 15 minutes Ron comes our of the den and immediately gives
his territorial call.
In an identical display of behavior to Camp Pan male, Ron
circles the den site calling and marking his territory
strenuously.
Circling around the den site several times, Ron proclaims the
area out of bounds to all male tigers. Nearby he aggressively
threatens the male tiger Saetao, warning him to keep out of the
area.
Recently at Londolozi, we had a spate of leopard cubs killed by
nomadic male leopards and male leopards who were not the fathers
of the cubs.
I believe for leopard and tigers cubs to be successful, it is
essential that the male territories are stable.
It seems obvious to me that male tigers and male leopards take
the task of securing the area and especially the area around the
den very, very seriously.
The male check in from time to time to see how the females are
coping with the raising of the cubs.
Male tigers and male leopards in their prime are at the
strongest times of their lives. They can secure the best area
and protect the area making it safe for cubs to have the best
chance of survival.
The areas are secured vocally, chemically and by their physical
presence.
Although male leopards can defend an area against male leopards,
they cannot guarantee safety against lions. Lions remains the
biggest killers of leopard cubs.
A few years ago at Londolozi I had filmed the "Mother Leopard"
return to her den to find one of her two cubs had been killed by
lions. One cub remained alive.
"Mother Leopard" carried the cub a short distance and began
to lick the cub. Then she took the dead cub up into the
branches of a large ebony tree and began to eat the cub. Her
body language suggested she was grieving over her dead cub.
"Mother Leopard" took pieces of the body down into the dry
river bed and buried them in the sand. She was most
meticulous about burying the parts of the body deep in the
sand so hyenas couldn't get them.
It was a solemn, touching ceremony as I and her surviving
cub watched her bury the body parts.
As I moved my jeep closer to film the scene, she charged
aggressively.
Later I believed my action was totally insensitive to the
grieving mother.
The Tigress Shadow at Tiger Canyons recently gave birth
to four healthy cubs and after 4 days moved them to a
small secluded den in a dense thicket.
On the 5th day while she was away from the den I
crept into the den and discovered that she had
unknowingly sat on one of the male cubs. Its
crumpled lifeless body lay motionless in the den.
An hour later she returned to the den and picked up
the cub in her mouth and moved it a short distance
and began to lick the dead cub.
She showed great distress over the dead cub and was
aggressive to my presence at the den. Later she ate
the cub.
In the Masai Mara, I filmed a cheetah mother eat her cub
when a tourist vehicle has inadvertedly run over the cub in
the grass. Even though she had eaten the cub, she spent
several hours calling for the cub. It was a distressful
scene.
At Londolozi I had observed a python penetrate a rocky den
and swallow a leopard cub. When "Manana" returned to the
den, she immediately attacked the python which disgorged
the leopard cub.
Satisfied now she had the body of her dead cub, she spent
sometime licking it and then ate it. All the signs were of a
mother grieving over the loss of her cub and then she
returned to the den and called for her dead cub for several
hours. It was obvious to me that her distress was enormous.
It is fascinating to compare the behavior of Mother
leopard, Tigress Shadow, Manana and the Cheetah Mother. All
had showed great distress at finding their dead cubs. All
the mothers had spent some time licking the dead cubs and
then a desire to get rid of the body by eating it.
In the case of "Mother Leopard" she not only ate the cub,
but buried it as well, so strong was her desire to remove
all trace of the body.
All the mothers showed a desire to be left alone and the
leopard and tiger mothers were aggressive to me when I
approached closer.
It was obviously a distressing private moment which they
were unwilling to share.
Ironically when a cub dies, it increase the chances of
survival for the remaining cubs that are left alive, because
competition for milk and later meat is less.
All the big cats, lion, leopard, cheetah and tiger have self
regulating systems which maintain the delicate balance
between predator and prey.
Rarely seen are the range of emotions when a death occurs in
the litter and I feel very privileged to have had a glimpse
into these private ceremonies.
Tread lightly on the Earth
JV
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Tread lightly on the Earth
info@jvbigcats.co.za |
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