With the Cape Leopard Trust at Driehoek

Imagine you are hiking in the Cederberg. Ahead of you is a red flag.

Warning flags for leopard traps at Driehoek in the Cederberg

As you get closer, you read about Cape Leopards.

Leopard trapping signs

Leopard trapping signs for hikers

In September the Ungardener was at Driehoek volunteering with the Cape Leopard Trust. Stock farmers battle predators. Old stone traps remain from days when the animals were caught, and killed. Leopards were removed, while ‘their conservation status remained uncertain’. The Trust works with farmers to find solutions, such as Anatolian shepherd dogs.

Old stone trap for leopards

The Trust began with metal cage/box traps, but is concerned about possible damage to claws and teeth before adding a radio collar, then returning the animal to life in the wild.

Former cage trap for leopards

Dr Quinton Martins  of the Cape Leopard Trust is testing a foot-loop trap for large cats, a technique refined by American Dairen Simpson.

Dr Quinton Martins
at a new trap on the hiking trail

The new traps are set along hiking trails, or baited. Paths are made by animals, we follow. Sympathisers might feel triggering the trap allows another leopard to live, but the leopards, once caught, are radio collared then released. In time, the batteries go flat, and the process must be repeated.

Vehicle of the Cape Leopard Trust

While Jurg was monitoring the trap, came a signal, caught something! Each trap has a transmitter, volunteers check the signal every 1-3 hours. Phone Dr Martins. There is a river to cross on the way to the trap. Where they meet 2 elderly hikers. She asks for a lift across the river! We are in a hurry to get to that trap!! Once they get there, the trap is empty. Paw prints show a baboon was caught, but they, can release themselves. Any doubt was cancelled, by the troop of baboons on the ridge, yelling and swearing at those %$#&ing people! While they are resetting the trap, along come those same hikers. But, we asked you to avoid the flag!!   

Jurg doing telemetry
Listening for leopards!

A signal from a radio collar! Q says the leopard is staying in one place, he has made a kill. J, Q and his wife Elizabeth, hike up the mountain. By the time they arrive, the leopard is gone. The kill was a juvenile klipspringer. The wiry coat, looking like the bristles of a scrubbing brush, is soft but thick – intended to protect the buck from sharp rocks. The leopard carefully plucks the fur, and left nothing but the lower jaw with its teeth.

Klipspringer killed by a leopard

The Land Rover proudly wears its newly earned badge at Driehoek.

Volunteering for the Cape Leopard Trust at Driehoek

Dr Martins has only seen 7 uncollared wild leopards in 8 years. 

Even with collars, he only sees a few each year.  

Jurg is still hoping, next time?
In October, caught, on the camera trap!

At Driehoek

Adopt a Spot. Q is currently trying to collar Sneaky Pete, and Spot needs a collar with a new battery.

I believe the future of nature conservation lies with teaching the children. One day, when that child sits behind a desk with the power to sign away – a wetland or  the last surviving habitat of … I want to know that once, a little girl or boy learnt the fascination and delight of a wildflower blooming, a bird singing, a buck pausing close enough to hear it snorting. Elizabeth Martins runs children’s wilderness camps for the Cape Leopard Trust.

Pictures by Jurg,

words by Diana of Elephant's Eye
- wildlife gardening in Porterville,
near Cape Town in South Africa
(If you mouse over brown text,
it turns shriek pink. Those are my links.)