When leopard cub Mohli was just a few months old, her mother was mercilessly killed by farmers in South Africa for simply trying to feed her baby.
Mohli’s mother was a tragic victim of escalating human-wildlife conflict in Limpopo, one of the country’s largest farming regions. Human settlements are continually expanding into natural spaces, and as a result, wild animals like leopards may prey on their livestock. When that happens, the animals pay the ultimate price.
With no mother to feed her and no one to keep her safe, this tiny leopard cub did the only thing her instincts told her to do: she went hunting for food.
The very thing that killed her mother saved her life.
Mohli’s mother was tragically killed, leaving the young leopard cub with no one to feed her. She was extremely weak and severely malnourished when rescuers found her in a farmer’s trap. Source: Indlulamithi Wild Big Cat Sanctuary
At just three months old and barely bigger than a domestic cat, Mohli was far too young to be away from her mother. She crept onto a farm near Modimolle in Limpopo and was caught in a trap by a farmer. Farmers set these traps to capture leopards and have them released elsewhere so they cannot prey on their livestock.
What rescuers found when they arrived was heartbreaking.
Mohli was severely malnourished and dangerously weak. She had diarrhoea, which can be lethal in a young animal, and her condition was so poor that it was hard to estimate her age. When the vet tried to take her blood, her blood pressure was too low to draw any.
She was starving, alone and fighting for her life.
A leopard cub without her mother doesn’t just lose her parent. She stands to lose her chance at life.
Zara, your support will help give her her life back.
Poachers showing off their latest kill. A sobering reminder of the threat these animals face every day. Source: Wildlife Crime Information Network
Leopard mothers are everything to their young. They nurse them, shelter them and teach them everything they need to know about surviving in the wild.
When Mohli was strong enough to be moved, she was transferred to our partner, Indlulamithi Wild Big Cat Sanctuary in Limpopo, an expert in rehabilitating infant big cats. It was here that she was given her name, “Mohli”, meaning warrior.
We need your help to help get Mohli strong enough to live a wild life in a protected sanctuary.
Indlulamithi occupies 2,470 acres (1,000 hectare) of pristine wild land, and will be the perfect place for Mohli to live once she has developed her skills as a wild leopard.
Here, she will have plenty of food to hunt, and because it is private and fenced, she will always be safe from hunters and farmers. But to give her this life, we must help rehabilitate her.
If we can raise the funds for an enclosure that closely mimics the wild environment she lost, we can give Mohli back her life — and her freedom.
The goal is to give Mohli, now five months old, around 18 to 24 months of expert rehabilitation, and then release her into a large, fenced wild reserve, where she belongs.
But for this to be possible, she needs a two-and-a-half-acre (one-hectare) soft-release enclosure where she can develop the hunting and survival skills her mother never had the chance to teach her. More than anything, she deserves this chance.
Leopards are running out of time.
After losing her mother at a young age, Mohli is now regaining her strength at our partner’s sanctuary in Limpopo. She will need between 18 and 24 months of expert rehabilitation. Source: Indlulamithi Wild Big Cat Sanctuary
The African leopard is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. Populations have declined by more than 30% in the last 20 years, driven by habitat loss, the illegal wildlife trade and the same deadly human-wildlife conflict that killed Mohli’s mother.
Every cub that can be saved, rehabilitated and returned to the wild is a lifeline for the species. Please donate generously today.
