Catching CC

We have been away/very busy for the past month, so we now have a few blog posts to catch you up on what has been going on. Enjoy!

On Wednesday a new volunteer vet arrived on site and we re-opened our leopard traps, and just two nights later CC kindly wandered into a trap.  The vet came in and darted her, and as the leopard was in good health and she is one of our target animals we fitted a collar. Everything went smoothly and when we opened the door of the recovery crate the following morning she disappeared into into the bushes so quickly that we only got a picture of the dust flying into the air as she sped off.

 

CC was first seen on camera traps at Lajuma a few years ago as a cub, and we have since watched her raise cubs of her own. She is resident on Lajuma and is one of the most frequently seen leopards on our camera traps, so it was great to finally meet her in the flesh. Her mother was also collared for a few months by another researcher a few years ago, so it will be interesting to compare their home ranges.

 

CC being collared

A cloud of dust was all we managed to photograph as CC darted into the bushes when we released her.

 

Unfortunately the vet has now left to start a new job so we had to close our traps again, but we are making a plan to find a new vet and start trapping as soon as possible. Next on our hit list is Farfalla…

 

Farfalla is the next leopard that we are targeting for collaring.