This video from Africa is called Leopard looks after baby baboon.
From the Cape Argus in South Africa:
South Africa: Leopards Follow Scent – of Chanel
John Yeld
The leopard wears Prada? Or is it perhaps Dior, or Chanel?
The hidden Cape mountain leopards of the Cederberg are revealing some of their secrets, thanks partly to their weakness for expensive perfumes.
This surprising trait is being exploited by the Cape Leopard Trust whose researchers spray a liberal dose of perfume – deodorants are also effective – on the cage traps they’re using to catch, collar and release these charismatic but threatened animals.
The latest leopard to be seduced by a gorgeous perfume is “Oom Arrie”. This very healthy and unusually large 44kg male leopard – named after the manager of the Bakkrans game reserve in the Cederberg – was finally physically trapped a full 18 months after being first “caught” by a camera trap.
“On December 15, 2005, the chairman of the Cederberg Conservancy, Jannie Nieuwoudt, several of his employees and I carried a very heavy leopard cage trap a couple of kilometres over some exceptionally rocky terrain in order to be able to capture ‘M2’ who had been seen in our camtrap picture,” Cape Leopard Trust project manager Quinton Martins recalled this week.
“I knew very little of this male’s movements, other than from the records from our camera traps and from his spoor.
“Little did I know then that it would take one-and-a-half years and more than 200 trap nights before we would finally manage to collar this animal – the eighth we’ve managed to collar since the inception of the project in the Cederberg.”
This cage trap was situated along the Groot River near the mountain lodge, Mount Ceder.
A VHF transmitter was attached to it and the signal was checked twice a day to see whether it had been triggered.
Martins and field assistant Willem Titus also monitored the cage on foot every second or third day to see whether there were tracks in the area.
“Luckily, other than a baboon and a klipspringer, both released unharmed, there was little ‘by catch’ in this trap,” Martins said.
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Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Despite the corny dialog, that leopard video is really interesting. Animals are much more complex and intelligent than we given credit for. I just had a talk with some workmates on our pets sense of humor. I had a cat who would “tell” little jokes and then laugh. I knew a neuroscientist who told me that even very simple animals have emotions that appear to be very similar to our own.
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Hi Jon, indeed I think depictions, of, eg, leopards as simply always devouring other animals are simplistic. It is a bit similar to humans: some humans love dogs, some eat them; some humans eat chickens, some have them as pets, etc.
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South Africa: Unique City Art Exhibit Shows Baboons Matter
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
21 August 2007
Posted to the web 22 August 2007
John Yeld
Changing attitudes to the baboon troops of the southern Peninsula will be reflected in what is believed to be a world-first: a baboon-inspired art exhibition that opens at Kirstenbosch this week.
The exhibition is being hosted by Baboon Matters, the company that manages the baboon monitors who try to reduce conflict between the baboons and local residents by keeping the animals out of urban areas.
“Over many years the issue of baboons has been the subject of heated emotions, with people equally polarised in their attitudes,” explained Jenni Trethowan of the company.
“Those who dislike the baboons vent their fury and often go out of their way to hurt the animals.
“Conversely, the people who like the baboons and want to see them protected generally stay quiet on the subject and have not voiced their support and concern as loudly as the vociferous anti-brigade.
“That is all changing – the pro-baboon masses are making their concerns heard and are challenging the authorities to make adequate funds available for the successful management of these intelligent primates, and certainly more people than ever are expressing sympathy for these beleaguered primates.”
Artists were also now becoming involved, Trethowan said.
They include people like Masiphumelele sculptor Lebo Lefuma, who is fascinated by everything about baboons and who is pouring his passion for these creatures into unique ceramic sculptures, which show the many similarities between baboon and man in a humorous way.
The artwork, which will be on display at the Sanlam Centre at Kirstenbosch Gardens, is “a multi-media collection of creativity that captures the fascinating, humorous and contemplative side of baboons”, Trethowan said.
It includes a diverse range of paintings, ceramics, photographs, metalwork, beaded work and wooden sculptures. The exhibition runs from Friday for a week, from 9am to 5pm daily. Admission is free.
For further information contact Baboon Matters on 021 782 2015.
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South Africa: Eighth Leopard is Collared
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
5 September 2007
Posted to the web 5 September 2007
John Yeld
Cape Town
Gotcha! Excited Cape Leopard Trust researcher Quinton Martins rushed off to the Cederberg again this weekend when yet another Cape mountain leopard was enticed into one of the trust’s cage traps.
This animal, a female weighing just 18kg and estimated at about three to four years old, walked into the trap set at the Bushmans Kloof private reserve in the northern half of the majestic Cederberg range which is home to a small population of the leopards, the Western Cape’s apex predator.
The lodge is one of the trust’s major sponsors, and the cages here and elsewhere in the mountains have been set by the trust to catch leopards so that they can be fitted with satellite tracking collars as part of the comprehensive research programme.
Martins stressed that their traps are specifically set to capture and collar the animals, and are not traps set by farmers.
The latest “catch” brings to eight the number of Cederberg leopards now wearing tracking collars, of which just two are females.
Also, Martins pointed out that the collared leopards were always released at the same place they had been caught because leopard ecology was disturbed by relocating or translocating animals.
“The information that we are getting from these collars is being used directly to help us understand the ecology of these leopards, so as to try and help farmers reduce any stock losses and also at the same time help the conservation of leopards and other predators,” he said.
“CapeNature can also benefit from this information because it can help it to implement more effective leopard management strategies.”
The trust’s website says the leopard fills the role of the apex predator in the Western Cape ecosystem and acts as an “umbrella species” which will effectively help in the conservation of smaller, lower-profile predators.
“Its resilience to persecution notwithstanding, the leopard has suffered extensive range loss in the Cape and is now extinct in many areas of the province where it formerly occurred.
“The species is routinely and regularly removed from farms with little knowledge of population or genetic status, whether removals are sustainable or whether the factors giving rise to conflict are established.
“Today, the long term persistence of leopard populations pivots on their densities within protected areas.
“Reliable population estimates of large carnivores are, therefore, essential for effective conservation management.”
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