Becoming an adult: Lotje vs Sasha

Time to move on; Sasha becoming a stranger for Lotje.

Observing the wild ocelots in Kabalebo gives me the opportunity to also understand their own situation. There comes a time that they also have to let go of the past and move on. We are going to use the trophy cam dates as our throwback. In these pictures (November 10, 2017) we see that Lotje (right) is not happy to see Sasha (left) at the feeder.
Sasha has been living solitary without her mothers' guidance. A job she did well as Sasha is still ok. 

But the next step for Sasha is to find her own space. Clearly she is still searching. Here body language says it all. Sasha is approaching cautiously the feeder and Lotje is eating fast making sure she got the majority of the food.

You can even see how Sasha is slowly making her way to the food, making sure not to make her mother angry. Just like any mother, Lotje, is not that bad at all and even leaves some pieces for Sasha.

But she is not going to wait and sit around so while Sasha was eating the last piece, Lotje left the area. Yes, it is possible difficult for Sasha knowing they are now becoming strangers, but ocelots are known as being solitary creatures. And second: Lotje has her hands full of raising her little sister: Lilith.

Here you see two pictures of Sasha's life path. On May 20, 2017 she is still close with her mother. On May 31, 2017 exactly 11 days later she started to travel alone. And 6 months later she became estranged from her mother.

Below you can read the full articles about the whole process:

the time has finally come ...

close relationship: Lotje & Sasha