When camera traps photographed a female leopard nicknamed “Stella” on South Africa’s Simonsberg mountain in 2010, researchers had no idea she’d still be there 15 years later.
But she is—and the reason researchers know this isn’t just from their own surveys. It’s because our partner, the Cape Leopard Trust (CLT), has built a citizen science network where private landowners across South Africa’s Cape Fold Mountains run their own camera traps and submit their observations to the CLT’s leopard data portal—a collaboration that’s proven invaluable for tracking individual leopards over time.
Late in 2025, the CLT completed a five-month camera trap survey across the Boland Mountain Complex (BMC) with support from Conservation Allies. The survey identified 38 individual leopards—including at least two females accompanied by cubs—across 965 square miles of rugged mountain landscape.
When Landowners Become Custodians
One of the survey’s most encouraging findings was that several individuals, including Stella, remain in the same area for a relatively long period, which is a good indicator of habitat stability. These leopards have been photographed in the same territories for years by the CLT and also by landowners contributing data to the CLT’s citizen science database.
This matters because with leopard density in the Western Cape being comparatively very low, understanding whether individual leopards maintain stable territories over time is critical for conservation planning. The citizen science network is providing promising data that this is indeed the case in many areas.
Apart from landowners with their own camera traps contributing data to the CLT, other landowners are also playing an important part in the research. The recent CLT survey in the BMC not only included vast swathes of officially Protected Areas (PA), but also 29 private properties surrounding these PA’s. The willing participation of so many landowners in welcoming and granting the researchers access is good news for conservation. The CLT’s efforts into building relationships, and sharing camera trap images and results back with landowners have helped to improve their appreciation and knowledge of nature, encouraging them to be long-term custodians of biodiversity.
The collaboration between the CLT and private landowners demonstrates what’s possible when conservation extends beyond Protected Area boundaries. Armed with this data, the CLT can now target conservation resources where they’re needed most—protecting key habitats and reducing human-wildlife conflict in critical leopard corridors. For Stella and the other leopards of these mountains, the partnership between researchers and landowners may be their best chance at survival.