Shakira and Ombeli - October Update

Ombeli and Shakira

Our lovable pair of leopards can certainly no longer be called cubs - just take a look at them! They still enjoy a healthy appetite and have a harmless scrap with each other every feeding time, as each leopard vies for the first piece of meat to be thrown over to them.

Shakira

Ombeli remains the more boisterous of the two and has been bravely testing out the force of the electric wires on their fence line. He is often seen scraping at the wires with his paws, clearly undeterred by the high voltage of electricity running through them! Astonishingly he doesn't seem discouraged by the electric shocks so we decided for their and our safety, to add an additional line of electricity at the bottom of the fence.

Ombeli

In order to do this, Wildlife Coordinators Jo and Elzette had to lure Shakira and Ombeli into temporary transit cages (which wasn't too difficult - a piece of meat is all it takes for these two!) Once in the cages, our staff removed them from their enclosure whilst Hardus, Farm Manager and his team of workers set about adding the line of extra fencing.

The whole process didn't take too long fortunately, and within a couple of hours Shakira and Ombeli were safely back in their camp. However, despite our best efforts Ombeli still pushes against the electric wire - even the new one we've added at the bottom of the fence! It seems this leopard is indestructible!

Ombeli

Ombeli and Shakira

Ombeli

The biggest pest for large carnivores duing the hot summer season is horse flies, which plague the cats by burrowing deep into their fur and biting into their skin. It seems ironic that such small insects can cause our strong leopards such discomfort!

The only way to rid them of the flies and insects is to spray flea repellant onto the big cats. We use Frontline which not only kills the flies on the animals but prevents re-infestation. Now spraying flea repellant on dangerous leopards through a fence is no easy task! 

Using a standard sized spray bottle, it's necessary to lure them close enough to the fence to spray through the fence, onto their bodies. We do this during feeding time as it's the easiest time to get the leopards to come close to the fence and then if they get a bit too close we can throw meat to keep them happy.

Shakira