John,

I wasn't sure about posting this, and I hope I don't offend anyone........If I do, I apologise in advance.

First of all I should say that I'm not suggesting that everyone in the SA hunting industry is a crook, I'm just saying that the SA Leopard hunting and licencing system is open to a lot of liberty taking......and many people (but not all) abuse the set up.

It's a complicated system that can be open to all sorts of abuse, but the first problem with SA leopards is that they have been seriously persecuted from the time the first white settler appeared on the scene. (I guess about 200 years ago) Pretty much everyone saw Mr Spots as nothing but a stock killer and consequently began poisoning trapping and shooting them at every single opportunity and they still haven't stopped........Mr Spots is (at least IMO) the cleverest animal in Africa and this has meant that they quickly learnt every trick in the book.....That's a lot of years of learning!

So even on a completely fair Leopard hunt (and believe me thev majority in SA are not) the South African Leopard is probably the most educated in Africa.

Add on the fact that Leopard licences are kept in very short supply in SA and further can be repeatedly re-cycled to other clients if the preceding Leopard hunt is unsuccessful there is a huge scope for abusing the system.

Often the abuse is not on the side of the PH, it's often on the side of the landowner who makes more money if he can sell the same licence more that once or even sometimes on the side of the native hunting staff who will get additional work and additional tips if they get more than one client on the same Leopard hunt over the year......but not all PH's are honest and many clients wouldn't even latch onto many of the dodgy dealings.

Here's just a few of the regular cons:-

The outfitter shoots a Leopard before the start of the season and freezes it.....then a few days into each hunt he sends someone to the bait tree with the frozen pussy and a jar of blood......When the client arrives he sees the cat on the bait and is encouraged to shoot it quick!.....at the shot, the cat (which has a long piece of fishing line attached to it) gets pulled off the tree and the blood chucked about the place......the the Leopard gets picked up, carried away and returned to the freezer for the next time. The client is told he's wounded the cat and after a little walking & tracking told he's lost it......but of course, he still has to pay the trophy fee......then the landowner just claims an unsuccessful hunt and sells the licence again..... one of these was discovered last year when two hunters found themselves in adjacent seats flying home to the USA!.

Another one is once the baits have been hung, someone sneaks up to the bait tree when no-one is around and takes a leak somewhere nearby so that no self respecting Leopard will go near the place.

Then there's the ones that sell the Leopard hunt without having the Leopard licence at all......they certainly can't afford for the client to shoot a Leopard as they'll never get the export licence and also face prosecution for hunting a Leopard without a licence. An example of that trick appeared on the forums just last year....the client wasn't even aware he had been screwed.

.....and then there's the various tricks of using silent dog whistles to either scare the cat off or attract it without the client knowing about it........neither of which are exactly fair chase hunting.

Examples like this take place every single year in South Africa and other places......but mostly South Africa.

Compare that to countries such as Tanzania, which has a far better policing system of game guards (but nowhere near perfect!), a better quota system and land that has never really been settled and has always remained a wilderness area. Sure it's a lot more expensive, but at least you know that you're getting a fair chase hunt and you have a much better chance of success.

(IMO) RSA Leopard hunts are (probably considerably) less than 30% successful.....but as we never know how many times each licence is sold, it's impossible to make an accurate assessment of success rates.

Another factor is that in SA there is no requirement for a government game guard to accompany the hunt whereas in most of the other countries there is. This means that absolutely anything that happens in the bush stays in the bush.

The funny thing is that as soon as you get out of RSA the Leopards get a lot less wary. (Which just goes to show how educated they are) We hunt two a year in Tuli Block of Botswana which is just next door to RSA and it's a lot easier there than across the border.....That said, I doubt they'll sell this year as Botswana has just started charging us a large additional icence fee for them which has resulted in a biggish price hike.

My advice to any client considering a South African Leopard hunt is don't bother - and my advice to any PH/outfitter/agent who doesn't live on the property (fulltime) the hunt is going to take place on is the same.

......save longer, spend more, go elsewhere and increase your chances dramatically.