Botswana Cattle Killing PAC Leopard

[M McDindi]

Received the following two photos and info from one of my Botswana friends.

Two nights ago, their time, the leopard in the photo got into his neighbor Kevin's cattle coral and killed six young calves. The next day they tracked a "drag" mark and found the seventh about 300m away. The set up and waited for him to hopefully come back the next evening, (yesterday their time).

The cat came back about 5:30pm and his cattle killing career was put to an end and that is cat number six for Kevin.

They are desperately hoping the country will open leopard hunting up more fully.

 

[CAustin]

Damn beautiful cat!

 

[cpr0312]

Glad he was able to get it! Too bad it couldn't be a client due to this global lockdown...

 

[M McDindi]

CAustin - yes, that was a nice cat. Kevin is just a bit over 6' tall.

CPR - unfortunately, Bots hasn't fully opened leopard hunting...yet. They did allocate a very few exportable leopard in the concessions they tendered earlier this year but, not every concession.

It is a damn shame that no matter how hard the hunting community tries to explain the relationship between wildlife and ranching/farming and that they CAN both co-exist with responsible take off of game that covers the expense of the ranchers/farmers losses then it can be positive for the ranchers/farmers and because the game has monetary value they will be allowed to live off of the ranchers/farmers resources. The loss of a few game animals, that are generally past their prime and the fact that ALL animals die regardless, help ensure the continued existence of the each species.

When I hunted that specific area last year, both times, there were LOTS of very good leopard tracks. During the heyday of leopard hunting before it was shut down, my friend there specialized leopard with dogs. He had a European client that they took, I think he said, four tom leopard in 5-days. He showed me a video of one of the cats that was at bay by the dogs and as they drove up in the open topped bakkie, it charged the truck. The shot (shotgun) was literally at point blank range. He said even he had to go back and change his pants after that one.

He said the cats have become so plentiful that they really have become a significant problem.