Monthly newsletter - August 2025
Advancing leopard conservation through data and dedication.
This month's newsletter is packed with stories of resilience and discovery. We share the incredible story of a cub's survival against the odds and the record-breaking journey of a male leopard, revealed by our AI. We also provide updates on our road ecology project and our core mission to protect leopards from growing threats.
Mbilu: A Legacy of Survival
In August, we sadly lost one of our most consistently monitored leopards, Mbilu, who was killed by lions on the Rietspruit Game Reserve. While conflicts between these two apex predators are a natural part of the ecosystem, the loss of an animal we have tracked so closely is deeply felt. Mbilu was 6 years old and had been sighted 189 times between January 2022 and her passing. She was a remarkable mother, and her final act was to provide for her young.
Mbilu was born in the Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate to Kulua, the one-eyed female. She successfully dispersed to Raptors View Wildlife Estate, where she raised two males, Kusile and Medupi, to adulthood. Kusile has since established his territory in the Blue Canyon Conservancy, and Medupi, though more elusive, remains in the area. Mbilu then raised a female, Moya, to adulthood. Moya is expected to take over Mbilu’s territory.
Earlier this year, Mbilu had another litter of two cubs. One disappeared, but the fate of the second remained unknown after Mbilu’s death. Twenty-eight days later, on August 31st, a camera trap on Raptors View, belonging to Derek Keats, captured a video that confirmed the cub had survived. We are hopeful that this cub, having inherited Mbilu’s exceptional survival skills, will continue to fight. We will eagerly follow its journey, hopeful that it will reach 1.5 years of age and continue to grow on its own.
The Power of AI: A Leopard's Journey Revealed
This month, a significant discovery was made, demonstrating the power of technology and of our network. The Lion Pan male, a leopard regularly sighted on Kapama Game Reserve until he vanished in April 2024, was rediscovered through our AI platform. His whereabouts remained a mystery until the team from Siyafunda submitted their monthly data.
ArgusWild, the AI program, quickly processed their new images, comparing them against our database of over 14,000 images—a task that would have taken a human thousands of hours. In just minutes, the AI found a match: the Lion Pan male had been sighted in Makalali Game Reserve in July 2025. This remarkable find confirmed a straight-line dispersal of at least 57 km, the longest recorded track to date in our network. This movement indicates that the Lion Pan male likely traversed multiple reserves and areas where we currently do not have access. This finding highlights the crucial role of both the AI platform and our network of over 45 lodges and reserves in tracking leopard populations and movements across the wider landscape. The story of this traveling male continues to unfold as we await to see if he will establish a new territory or continue his journey.
Road Ecology Project: Data Collection Progress
Our road ecology project continues to yield critical data, thanks to our team's patrols and the ongoing contributions of citizen scientists. August marked the conclusion of our roadkill patrols for the dry season. Over 42 mornings from June to August, we recorded 66 road kills on a 47km stretch of the R40. This effort complements the 91 roadkill records submitted by citizen scientists since February 2025. The combined data has allowed us to create a detailed heatmap showing where these incidents are most common. The top five species found were the Red & yellow-billed hornbills (20), civet (18), scrub hare (13), vervet monkeys (10), and other unidentified birds (8), with a breakdown of 60% mammals, 32% birds, and 8% reptiles. We will conduct these patrols again from January to March during the wet season, as we expect to see variations in data between seasons. We encourage citizen scientists to continue reporting roadkill through our WhatsApp group to create a comprehensive map.
In July, our team, led by our Canadian intern Tanis, successfully moved all camera traps to the second section of the R40 to continue our culvert monitoring. Check our short video from the field by clicking this link!
The strategic placement of these cameras has already yielded some very exciting footage, including a female leopard (Bokamoso) teaching her cub how to use a culvert. We have also been able to identify other leopards, including the females Black Dot, and TA_LF0005, as well as a new male from Corkwood. Interestingly, the leopard is the only large predator we have so far recorded using the culverts, which once again highlights their remarkable adaptability.
This ongoing research would not be possible without the generous support of our primary sponsor, AirNav Systems, as well as the vehicle provided by Trophy Rentals, the discounted fuel rate from Bosbok Ollie, and all our private donors.
Our 'Why': A Data-Driven Mission for Leopard Conservation
Leopards are the most persecuted big cat in the world, and prime breeding-age leopards are dying in increasing numbers in areas bordering South Africa's protected wildlife reserves.
They move effortlessly between protected and non-protected areas, where they face threats from vehicles, snares, bullets, and poison. While the full extent of this problem remains unquantified on a large scale, the data we are collecting on our project indicates it is a substantial concern. For instance, in the Hoedspruit area alone, our records show seven leopards killed on roads since we started counting in 2024. These deaths are likely a small fraction of the total mortality. If this trend continues, it could lead to a smaller, weaker gene pool and, ultimately, the disappearance of a key species. Just as wolves play a crucial role in the Yellowstone ecosystem, leopards are vital to maintaining a healthy bushveld through a process known as trophic cascades.
Preventing this decline is the very reason we do what we do.
If you share our commitment to a future where leopards can thrive, we invite you to learn more about our data-driven approach. We would be delighted to share our conservation ambitions and how unrestricted funding for our organizational and research project costs can help us address this critical issue head-on.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Marine Servonnat
Executive Director