Houdini (Green)

The eastern male initially utilised an area of 2560ha and rarely ventured outside of his territory.  You can see the clearly defined line on his western boundary where the boundary between him and the bigger western male lies.  The western male has now taken over Houdini's former range completely and Houdini is now boxed into a small area on the north-western area on the above map between the Soetveld and Mhlanganisi stream, this after making several exploratory movements to the east and north-west.  He has not been on Hlambanyathi since November 2008.

Caroline (Red)

Caroline spent the majority of her time in the eastern part of the reserve and shared the same area with Vukile.  Vukile was still a young cat when Caroline was reintroduced and Caroline's departure from the east coincides with Vukile reaching maturity at about 2.5 years of age.  Caroline headed west but was boxed in between Vukile, the uncollared western female and the river.  Caroline gave birth on a hill overlooking a horseshoe bend in the river (note dense concentration of red dots in west) and used no more than 400ha during the denning period.  This was outside Houdini's territory (green) and her cubs were most likely killed by the uncollared western male, as she gave birth in his territory even though he did not sire the cubs. 

Steffie (Yellow)

The southern part of the reserve consists out of more open areas interlaced with dense drainage lines.  Superb quality leopard habitat is not in huge supply here, so it was not surprising that Steffie intensively utilised very small areas, with her total area covered amounting to 1070ha.  The densest concentration of locations is around her boma which was built surrounding the thickly vegetated Ezengulubeni stream.  After her release the boma was removed and she happily stayed within close proximity of its previous confines, occasionally heading down another drainage line towards the river and intensively utilising some inaccessible riverine forest.  You can see a clearly defined line between Steffie (yellow) and Carolines (red) ranges, and they used the river as a natural boundary between territories, even though there is no water in this area in the river during winter.

Vukile (Blue)

Vukile has not used more than 880ha since collaring, and the area coincides nearly 100% with Caroline's first 6 month movements.  The fact that she does not go further west suggests that another female is keeping her out of the western Doornhoek area.  Her range has increased slightly since Caroline moved away but the western boundary stays consistent.  She only uses the eastern part of the river and her whole range encompasses excellent leopard habitat, from the thick fever tree forests behind Hlambanyathi dam to the lower reaches of the river with its big fever and fig trees and all the small streams and dongas leading into the larger Hlambanyathi and Soetveld streams.  Since Caroline left the area, Vukile's total range use has increased to 1370ha.