Woman In Botswana Mauled By Leopard Inside Her Tent

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is one of southern Africa’s most popular parks, a favourite of those who can’t stand the crowds and cars that blight the Kruger experience.

Seriously, make the mistake of going to the park during the school holidays and you’ll feel just a little sick to your stomach.

The three Kgalagadi camps within South Africa’s borders are pretty well organised, stocked with all the essentials and a pool for a midday cool-off, but when you head to the smaller camps on the Botswana side things are a little different.

It’s the Matopi 1 camp that features in this story, which took place on January 4 and appeared on Safarious. We’ll set the scene:

"…my wife, myself and another two friends set up camp at Matopi 1 on the way to the South African side of the park. We were in two vehicles, ourselves in a ground tent the other vehicle a rooftop tent.

…I went for a leak a little way from my vehicle and spotted a leopard lying in the road about 50m from camp. I called the others to come and have a look and we stood at my vehicle observing him. He paid us no attention and got up and started moving to our camp…

He moved around the camp lying down next to each vehicle, sniffing our chairs, completely relaxed and paying us no mind…

At about 11pm we wanted to go to bed and I got in my vehicle and started it in the hope that he would take the hint and depart, but he was completely unfazed and we guessed that he was habituated to humans which was saddening."

Unfazed isn’t even the half of it, because things quickly took a turn for the worse:

"At just after 12 midnight, I woke up to my wife screaming in terror with the leopard tearing into her leg trying to drag her out of the tent. I dived to the bottom of the tent and tried to find his eyes to get my fingers into him. At this point he let go and ran off.

I located my torch to assess the damage to her leg, which was horrific. My wife started screaming that the leopard was back and I turned to find him stalking towards us about 10m away. I rushed out of the tent, grabbed a spade and charged him screaming as loudly as I could, and he ran off with me in pursuit for about 100m.

By this stage my wife had managed to get herself to the vehicle which was about 5m from our tent."

They quickly packed up camp, during which time the “leopard was moving around and never backing away”, and the two cars sped towards Nossob, where they hoped to get medical attention.

That didn’t really work out:

"My wife was in agony and bled through three pillows and duvet as I changed them every hour to try and assess blood loss. We arrived at Nossob to a locked gate and no medical facilities whatsoever, and another 165km drive on sand and gravel to Twee Rivieren where we were finally met by an ambulance, and another two-and-a-half hour drive to Upington, where thankfully there was an orthopaedic surgeon in theatre on another case when we arrived.

Miraculously, though both tendons on either side of the artery were severely damaged, the artery was unharmed. My wife is currently in hospital with a crushed heel requiring screws and severe wounding requiring plastic surgery."

Her leg has been saved and there is no infection, and the husband has a few words of advice for SANParks:

"I believe that no ground tents should be allowed in the unfenced portion of any of the parks and that tyre pressures should be checked upon entrance. Had there been arterial bleeding, the state of the road would have proved the death of my wife. Quite honestly I would push for the banning of all-wheel-drive SUV vehicles [vehicles without low-range gears] as well, as I believe these also are not up to the task of dealing with these roads and keeping them in a decent state."

The park is still worth every minute of the 11 or so hour drive from Cape Town, but perhaps that campsite in particular needs a little rethink.

We’ll stick with the caracals on Lion’s Head for now.



Source: http://www.2oceansvibe.com/2018/01/17/woman-in-botswana-mauled-by-leopard-inside-her-tent/

Thanks for sharing!

It’s wrong and dangerous for wild animals to be so habituated to humans. Too many people doing the wrong thing like feeding them. Any large predators like this that are not afraid of humans should be taken out. But then again they want to be able to take pics of the cuddly little animals!
Philip

Maybe they are relatives of the young man whom had the great while bite his arm off while hugging him.

I would say that is a perfect example of why you bring a gun camping. It is forbidden in the parks I camp in but I don't give a damn. Better judged by 12 than carried by 6

I can't really imagine myself being unarmed in that situation. It's also interesting the way they were perfectly OK with the leopard prowling about in close proximity before they went to bed. I am glad the woman survived the encounter.

Nice Tom Leopard!

I think there were some people habituated to the Leopard.
Letting the Leopard rest on the entrance mat to your tent?

They paid a huge price for being so complacent.

MikeDeltaFoxtrot said:

I can't really imagine myself being unarmed in that situation. It's also interesting the way they were perfectly OK with the leopard prowling about in close proximity before they went to bed. I am glad the woman survived the encounter.

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exactly. I would be sleeping in the truck if there was a leopard hanging around

lcq said:

exactly. I would be sleeping in the truck if there was a leopard hanging around

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+1

That is a big, beautiful leopard, BTW.

We have exactly the same problem here.....

Some people don´t understand the "wild" in wild animal.

Unfortunately nothing new. I remember going into Yellowstone National Park as a kid in the 80s and having the rangers passing out flyers that bison killed or maimed several hundred people in the park over the years. Not 5 miles into the park there was a group of big bachelor elk on the banks of a river 100 yards off the road. A large herd of bison were smack between the road and the bull elk and people were wading through them like so many dairy cows. My dad has a good picture of a man with 3 or 4 cameras hanging from his neck squatting down taking pictures of the elk with his back not 10 yards from a huge bison bull that is obviously irritated with his presence.

the leopard knew they were antis.

Firstly this is a mature male leopard that appears to be in good health.

People do stupid things around wild animals.

The leopard shows unnatural behaviour and clearly it's actions did not come about overnight. This is due to previous visitors stupidity by either leaving out food deliberately or out of lack of common sense. "Look honey something ate all our leftovers last night!)

All the signs were there before this tragedy happened.

The leopard showed no fear of humans, was sniffing on the tent and lying right at the tent and vehicles. Hallo!!!!

A leopard is the supreme predator. All the signs were ignored.

What were they thinking? The leopard was there for their company and would go away as soon as they went to bed! How stupid can you be!

What could have been done after these signs where observed?

Pack and move to another camp or to another open area a good distance away.
Don't sleep on the ground in that flimsy plastic thing revered to as a tent.
Sleep in one of the trucks.

Being unprepared and venturing into secluded areas of Africa and then complaining after a serious incident happens, well that is just being a fool. Then wanting parks officials to ban ground tents and soft roader 4x4 is just ignorant. And then expect parks officials to check your tire pressures on entry because you are a fool who does not know what you are doing??

One needs to do some preparation for a trip into the kalahari.

1. Incorrect vehicle used-a soft roader with no low range 4x4 and not enough ground clearance.
2. No knowledge of off road driving(tires where never deflated to correct pressures) and then expect parks officials to check your tire pressures! Are you nuts!!
3. No proper medical kit. You do not stem blood from a trauma wound with pillows and duvets.
4. No basic first aid training-the fundamentals of any trauma injury case is-STOP the bleeding by applying pressure and bandaging. For that you need proper bandages-not pillows and duvets. You NEVER reopen to check the wounds! If the bleeding persist you keep adding(not removing to check!) Elevate the affected part and reassure the patient.
5. Contact details of emergency services in case needed.(I know signal is not available in large areas but somewhere you will get signal-alternatively hire a sat phone, especially if you do not know what you are doing).

At least they got a few things right:

1. If any arteries where damaged he is correct, his wife would have died due to his incompetence.
2. "We’ll stick with the caracals on Lion’s Head for now."-Very good idea!

This leopard will probably be destroyed due to peoples foolish behaviour.

I am sure she will survive this but I hope at least somebody has learnt something from it.

Hoas said:

Photos of the leopard that attacked tourist in her tent

View attachment 216419 View attachment 216420 View attachment 216421 View attachment 216422

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Wow that is scary.

Many of these campers go specifically for these experiences. Lion, Elephant, Hyena & Leopard passing or hanging around the campsite is considered a "must", hence plenty visitors actually attempt to attract these animals despite strict game park rules against interfering or feeding wild life.

These predators don't typically cause problems with ground tents, but a leopard with no fear of humans can quickly figure things out and adapt when hanging around such as in this case.

I do agree though that the author is unreasonable to blame the Park for anything. If you want to take the risk to camp & experience the African bush, don't throw a tantrum when you bump your toe or prick your finger on a thorn.

But hey, I don't mind, some lucky bugger will get a magnificent Leopard on a PAC permit.

If you had pics of the leopard that night, why would you even consider sleeping on the ground in the same place while the cat was still there????!!!!

Jaws said:

Many of these campers go specifically for these experiences. Lion, Elephant, Hyena & Leopard passing or hanging around the campsite is considered a "must", hence plenty visitors actually attempt to attract these animals despite strict game park rules against interfering or feeding wild life.

These predators don't typically cause problems with ground tents, but a leopard with no fear of humans can quickly figure things out and adapt when hanging around such as in this case.

I do agree though that the author is unreasonable to blame the Park for anything. If you want to take the risk to camp & experience the African bush, don't throw a tantrum when you bump your toe or prick your finger on a thorn.

But hey, I don't mind, some lucky bugger will get a magnificent Leopard on a PAC permit.

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No PAC will be issued here, will be shot by rangers.

Thats very interesting behaviour from a Leopard!