Houdini

It is often difficult to name an animal, as we prefer getting to know the animal first and then name it according to some individual characteristic. In this case it was easy.

Our resident male has perfected a technique of escaping from a cage-trap, or to set off a trap prematurely by clambering on top of the cage and triggering the rope holding the trap door open. His other favourite trick was to stick his paws through the openings at the rear end of our older-model traps (disregarding all the thorn-branches we packed there with bleeding hands as a result) and worrying the bait or rope until the door slammed shut again - cat on the outside! Out of the eight times he visited a cage trap in 2007 (and set off the trap), he was only caught twice!  Tracks around the trap told the story of how wily a fellow he is.

Houdini is an estimated 5 years old and is growing into a beautiful thick-necked male, weighing in at about 65kg.  Houdini is fitted with a GPS/VHF collar that records his location together with dual motion sensors that continously records activity over 5 minute intervals. 

  

Dr Chap Masterson and Mariska Senekal removing a VHF collar from Houdini

We believed he would still grow more at that stage and that a VHF collar could 

choke him should he grow too big.                                                                               

                 

Houdini does not like being seen (as most wild leopards prefer it) and the quality of most sightings of him seem to depend on his mood.  Sometimes he'll rest less than 15m from the vehicle and other times he'll move away even from as far as 200m.  According to GPS data he uses a small area of 2560ha in the eastern half of the reserve, with both Caroline's and Vukile's territories encompassed in his.

                       Houdini in tall grass, winter 2008