Cape Leopard Trust

Over the past several months, the Cape Leopard Trust Education team has been developing our new virtual reality (VR) project, with funding support from The Royal Commission for AlUla. This immersive experience is specifically focused on differently-abled learners and learners who never get the opportunity to explore and experience our incredible protected areas and heritage sites. In 2025 we’ll be bringing the wonders of the natural world to classrooms where learners will explore sandstone caves with ancient San & Khoi rock art, meet a leopard in its natural habitat, and experience the incredible fynbos biome, all in a safe, controlled environment. Designed to inspire, educate, and promote inclusivity, this pioneering project connects learners to nature, inspiring curiosity, appreciation, and a passion for protecting our planet. While it remains our top priority to teach children about nature in nature, VR introduces a new world of possibilities for environmental education and offers an innovative way to get children interested in the natural world. #TeachingTuesday #EnvironmentalEducation #VirtualReality

The Cape Leopard Trust was fortunate to have one of our own participate in the recent Earthshot Prize Youth Leadership Programme: Africa. CLT Research & Conservation Field Officer Matthew Arendse joined climate youth leaders from across Africa and Asia in the youth leadership programme – four days of masterclasses, discussion panels, workshops and keynotes, all set against the backdrop of the Earthshot week of activities and events. The youth leaders had the opportunity to meet and interact with The Earthshot Prize 2024 finalists and attend the prestigious awards ceremony. Matthew was particularly inspired by the Earthshot Prize category ‘Protect and Restore Nature’. He hopes take the valuable lessons learned and connections made at the youth leadership programme into his work at the CLT and continue to play a part in the protection and restoration of the biodiversity of the Western Cape – home to the leopards of the Cape! #MotivationMonday #WhatIsYourEarthshot #ThisIsMyEarthShot #TheEarthShotPrize2024

The Cape Leopard Trust #Mobikraal project has been working closely with five test sites across southern Africa where prototypes of our design for an affordable, mobile and predator-proof kraal will be rigorously tested in 2025. Our pre-monitoring camera traps have spotted a wide array of species roaming around the farms, providing important baseline information. We look forward to the next phase of the project when the innovative design will be put through its paces, hopefully resulting in an effective, useful tool for predator-livestock conflict mitigation that will benefit communities globally. We would like to sincerely thank the test farms, partners and funders for their support in 2024. Mobi-kraal is supported by The Royal Commission for AlUla, Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, Van Tienhoven Foundation, Oppenheimer Generations Research & Conservation and Spoor & Fisher along with facilitating partners Shangani Holistic Ranch and Primate and Predator Project.

Leopard camera trap photos are always exciting, but every once in a while we get absolutely cracker images that gives us goosebumps! This sequence from our recent Cape Leopard Trust Piketberg survey is a perfect example 🐆😻 Leopard mating is known to be an energetic, feisty and sometimes drawn-out affair. This pair of cats first arrived on the scene at 20h36, and what followed was a series of photos showing the two intermittently circling each other, laying down and mating, more circling, snarling, hissing and even some aerial manoeuvres, with the last images only taken at 22h13! How wonderfully exhilarating to catch this behaviour on camera and learn more about the secret lives of these elusive big cats – and a perfect post to celebrate World #WildlifeConservationDay 🐾 #WildlifeWednesday #CamTrapChronicles #CLTcreaturefeature #leopard #pantherapardus

Calling our international supporters this #GivingTuesday! 🐆🐾 Conservation Allies is hosting an end-of-year fundraising matching campaign, where all donations made to Conservation Allies partners will be DOUBLED through December 31, 2024! As one of these partners, the Cape Leopard Trust could benefit greatly from this campaign. Please go to our institutional donation page https://lnkd.in/dv_PaCKv and click on the orange 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗟𝗧 button on the left of the page. 100% of your donation comes to us!   𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘺: 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 $5000 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 $2000 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥. 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴’ 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦.

Getting ready to launch into the weekend like this dassie 😆 Lil’ guy clearly did not want to get his paws wet 🐾 📸Caught on Cape Leopard Trust camera trap in the Piketberg Happy weekend all! #FridayFeelgood #FridayFunny #FunnyAnimals #CamTrapChronicles

The Cape Leopard Trust Girls in Conservation initiative includes an interactive holiday programme as well as three impactful service assignments, designed to provide the participants with valuable skills. By completing these assignments, the girls contributed to their communities and advocated passionately for the environment. Read the full story at bit.ly/CLTGiC24 #TeachingTuesday #GirlsInConservation #GreenCareers #EnvironmentalEducation

Thrilled and proud to share ‘Celebrating the leopards of the Cape’ – a short video to mark the 20-year anniversary of the Cape Leopard Trust 🐆 We hope you enjoy and find this inspiring! 📽 bit.ly/CLT20Y

Thank you for your continued support HI-TEC SA! Read more about the inspiring Gents Trek at bit.ly/CLTGentsTrek24

The Cape Leopard Trust Education team is proud to report on another successful ‘Girls in Conservation’ programme for 2024! This initiative focuses on high school learners from rural communities in areas that share the leopard’s habitat, and provides the group of girls with an opportunity to learn about nature and develop an interest in the green economy. This flagship programme is an important part of the CLT’s philosophy of using environmental learning and knowledge as a catalyst for social change, by inspiring the youth to be conservation ambassadors. Read the full story at bit.ly/CLTGiC24 Many thanks to programme collaborators Ihlati Bush Camp, West Coast Fossil Park, Iimbovane Outreach Project, Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), Mama Flo SA and !Khwa ttu. The 2024 Girls in Conservation programme was made possible thanks to the generous support of our donors, especially the Maria Marina Foundation. #TeachingTuesday #GirlsInConservation #GreenCareers #EnvironmentalEducation