Sadly, Tjololo died at Mala Mala Game Reserve in November 2007.

He was 14, which is old for a leopard, and he had sustained some severe wounds from a porcupine he'd tangled with.

His body was taken to the Kruger National Park for an autopsy, where evidence was found of severe atrophication in his hind quarters and the bone structure in his front legs was also noted as unusual.

I have painted Tjololo at least 20 times - usually with modified ears - but his ears were part of what made him so unique.

Tjololo was the subject of National Geographic films called "Stalking Leopards" and "Predators at War", both made by acclaimed film-maker Kim Wolhuter. I first saw Tjololo on the internet where he was featured on "Africam" - a live feed every night from Mala Mala. Kim and I have a "barter" deal whereby I use some of his images and pay him in paintings.

Of the leopard, naturalist Maitland Edey wrote, “He is an animal of darkness, and even in the dark he travels alone.” Yet over the course of 19 months one male leopard in South Africa’s Mala Mala Game Reserve allowed me to become his companion. I named him Tjololo, a melding of words from the Swazi and Shangaan languages, which means “the one that stands alone.”

It can be a struggle to follow Panthera pardus in the bush, but years ago a veterinarian at neighboring Kruger National Park had implanted a tracking device in Tjololo to monitor his recovery after he was injured by a warthog. As a former park ranger, I was granted exclusive use of the implant’s frequency, allowing me to track Tjololo’s progress and gain his trust.

Eventually I could get close enough to hear the rasping of tongue against paw as he groomed himself and the crashing of a branch as he marked it with facial-gland scent.