Fig's Birth Announcement
Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.
—Jane Goodall
I have exciting news! Fig, my favourite spotted celebrity, is a new mother. Fig lives on the Olare Motorogi Conservancy adjacent to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. When I saw her in January 2020, she looked healthy and… pregnant. The gestation period for a leopard is three months. They typically give birth to one to three cubs.
I first met Fig in 2018 and wrote about her in 5 installments in my blog last year.
I also met Figlet, Fig’s daughter, who was several months old at the time and well on her way towards independence. Mother and daughter showed their affection for one another in true feline style, snuggling close, rubbing their faces and bodies, and caressing each other with their tails.
Last spring, sheltering at home due to COVID, I began to ask about Fig on a Facebook group called Big Cats of the Maasai Mara. Had anyone seen her? Had she had her cubs yet? There was no news. Finally, someone reported that she’d lost two cubs, sadly they’d been killed when she was out hunting.
Leopards are solitary animals. They don’t live with other family members who can step in as babysitters like in a pride of lions. Fig would have hidden her cubs when she went out to hunt. It’s risky business. Even though the cubs know to stay hidden, sometimes predators like hyenas or lions find the cubs and kill them. The circle of life—it’s dramatic and dangerous on the Mara.
At 11 years old Fig is in her prime. She conceived again in 2020 and made a strategic choice about where to birth her litter. She chose the shelter of the roof of one of the guest tents at Mara Great Plains Camp trusting in the safety and protection of the compound. Staff moved guests to tents on the far side of the camp, giving Fig space, protection, and first-class accommodation. This is actually the second time Fig has chosen the camp as a creche. She also gave birth there to her daughter Toto in late 2018. Watch a recent video of Fig’s newest cubs here.
I met Toto briefly outside our camp on our way home from an afternoon game drive last January. Like her mother, she was relaxed and tolerant of the vehicles and whirring shutters.
Loss of habitat, poaching, and human wildlife conflict are a real threat to the survival of all big cats in sub-Saharan Africa. Eco-tourism supports conservation, providing a win/win solution for both animals and the local people. Thanks to the willingness of Mara Great Plains Camp to put wildlife first, Fig’s new cubs have a better chance of survival and future guests have a better chance of spotting a leopard on a game drive.
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