Cradle Hotels, Lodges and Resorts

Hiding Leopard:

From about the start of 2011 there has been a regular sighting of a female leopard with two cubs in the centre part of Pilanesberg National Park! If you are a ranger in Ivory Tree Game Lodge you would know that this is a absolute special sighting because the leopard is a rare sighting in the Pilanesberg National Park, not even to talk about two cubs!
They where first spotted on Mankwe Way behind the red cyanide rocks! All ivory tree rangers have watched these fascinating creatures since they were very small cubs and it became a very regular sighting until lately!
All rangers of the Pilanesberg National Park, especially Ivory Tree rangers noticed that you don’t really see these cubs anymore! They have become so famous that even the private vehicles knew about them. It’s most probably because of that, that the female leopard decided it’s time to move these youngsters to a new safe location that no one knows about.
It’s now about six to seven weeks since we have last seen them or heard about them. Until yesterday!!!!!!!!!
I heard about a rumor going around about three leopards spotted in the Pilanesberg yesterday 16th of July 2011. I just knew I had to go there to check it out.
I got new guests and they requested to see as much as possible since it’s their first time in South Africa. The three leopards were spotted close to fish eagle picnic spot, which is almost in the exact centre of Pilanesberg National Park.
We slowly made our way finding lots of nice plains game along the way. Just before we got to Fish Eagle I saw all the vehicles keeping an eye out for them. By the time we finally got there everyone gave up and went for a rest stop at the picnic spot. I wasn’t exactly sure where they were spotted last so we just made our way up there very slowly. As we almost approached the picnic site itself we saw two beautiful white Rhinos walking on the road. While we were looking at the rhinos I quickly scanned the koppie next to as there we saw one female leopard basking in the sun!
We watched her for about 20 minutes just walking around in on the rocks. We did not manage to see the cubs, but I have heard that the cubs were spotted there! The one female leopard sighting was still absolutely amazing.

Ivory Tree ranger: Neil Coetzer