VERGELEGEN NEWS
2010-11-02 : Cape leopard |
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Excitement peaked on Tuesday 26 October when a rare adult male Cape leopard, two honey badgers and a caracal were spotted on camera. | |
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The recordings form part of Cape Town’s Leopard Project, a field study on leopard populations within the City of Cape Town. The project is a pilot study in preparation for more detailed research which is co-ordinated by the Cape Leopard Trust (CLT). The City study areas form part of the CLT Boland Project and all activities are managed by the City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Management branch.The leopard study stretches from the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve to the Helderberg Nature Reserve and includes all city-owned land managed by various departments as well as private land. Vergelegen is an important partner to this project as The Estate makes up a large portion of the leopard study area. The Estate’s managing director, Don Tooth, pledged his support and granted permission for researchers to set up monitoring stations on the property. In addition to this, The Estate purchased its own camera traps, which increased the amount of equipment and potential monitoring sites available to conduct research. Four fixed cameras were installed in early October on the farm at heights ranging from 80 to 473 metres. The cameras have a motion sensor that activates the cameras, which operate using a flash at night. There had been anecdotal evidence that there were leopard on the farm, but this was the first time nocturnal sightings were confirmed on camera. Vergelegen already has a diverse animal population that includes numerous antelope species, snake weasels, silver foxes and spotted genet, and we now have images to confirm the presence of leopard, honey badgers and caracal. Hayley-May Wittridge, Manager of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and Harmony Flats Nature Reserve of the City of Cape Town, Biodiversity Management, highlighted that leopard fills the role of the apex predator in the Western Cape ecosystem; and it acts as an ‘umbrella species’ which will effectively help in the conservation of smaller, lower profile predators and other species which live and make up the leopards’ home range. It is fantastic to know that these animals are still found within the Helderberg Basin and are utilising the areas frequently. Evidence of species such as leopard, honey badgers and caracal on the Vergelegen Estate is something to be proud of. In an urban environment, with development and social pressures resulting in the loss of habitat and species, there are few places which are home to such a full spectrum of species. Apex predators are usually the first to disappear. The main objectives of the field study are to:
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