There has been great excitement at Vondeling, where a recently installed camera trap confirmed suspicions that a Cape Leopard has increased his territory to include the Paardeberg mountain.
The leopard alerted us to his presence over two years ago, with paw-prints and faecal scat, demonstrating a diet including bones and porcupine quills! A roofing team working on an elevated house, claimed to have seen him some months ago. Then, typical territorial scratch marks were discovered on a tree by the team currently completing a post-fire Botanical Survey Project, commissioned by the Paardeberg Sustainability Initiative (PSI) and Vondeling Wines.
The PSI is a community program of sustainable development incorporating the Paardeberg mountain, currently listed in the top five most valuable biodiversity sites of the Western Cape’s fynbos biome. The PSI is registered as a WESSA [Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa] Friends Group, and also houses the Paardeberg FPA[Fire Protection Association].
The camera trap also photographed some small antelope, a Civet Cat, a Caracul with a “Dassie” kill, porcupine and several baboons.
{module Leopard Post Gallery|showtitle=0}
