Hello all

Today was the first official hunting day on Humani, and I think it would be an understatement to say the 2007 season started with a bang. What a day it ended up being, with Captain Bob Kirwan of Cambridge, Maryland taking a super 160 pound leopard only a few hours into his hunt. Let me try and describe for you the sequence of events that led to the taking of that cat.

Captain Bob arrived yesterday with his hunting buddies Brent Sinclair and Rick. I have neglected to find out Rick’s surname which is unforgivable for a journalist. Sorry, I shall post it tomorrow. Anyhow, Captain Bob, Rick and Brent came to Humani to hunt leopard with Roger Whittall Safaris and PH’s Peter Wood, Lymon Chitimela and Guy Whittall. Also on this hunt is professional dog-handler Nico Lourens and cameraman Ryan Neil. Upon arriving in camp, the hunters were pleased to hear that there has been good leopard activity in the area. This was reported by PH Wood who had been doing pre-hunt groundwork and had placed several baits in likely spots. It was agreed upon that Captain Bob Lymon, and Guy would initially concentrate on leopard, whilst Rick and Pete went after buffalo. We don’t like to get in each other’s way when hunting here. Although this is highly unlikely when hunting 130 000 acres and having good coms between parties, we don’t like there to be any chance of it at all. As far as the leopard hunting goes, that is all irrelevant now, as Captain Bob’s cat is down and ‘in the salt’ as I write.

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Captain Bob Kirwan, Brent Sinclair and Guy Whittall with the Captain's superb leopard

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Some more team members

Before sunrise this morning, three hunting rigs moved out of Turgwe camp with one major objective: to locate fresh, large male leopard tracks. It wasn’t long before the Captain's team achieved this objective. Crossing the Turgwe River onto Bedford Block at first light, the hunters discovered leopard spoor – both relatively fresh and large. Calling Nico in on the radio, the dogs were soon put onto the spoor. Initially things did not go too smoothly – the spoor was not as fresh as suspected and it led away from the river into relatively open mopani country where the scent was weak. As Nico and his number one handler Marthiens spurred the strike dogs (April and Sammy) on, Lymon, Guy and trackers Jay and Nhamo did what they could to assist in keeping on the trail. This state of affirs lasted for one and a half hours until the spoor led the hunters back towards the Turgwe River. Down in the river valley, real confusion came about as the leopard crossed his own tracks from sometime before. Whilst the dogs worked this way and that uncertainly, the trackers fanned out to try and pick up the fresh spoor once more. A stroke of good fortune led Guy Whittall back to that spoor which led away from the river once more. This time the dogs took up the trail in earnest – it was much fresher now and the scent was heavy on the dew covered, riverine vegetation. Picking up momentum, April and Sammy were soon onto the cat in earnest and Nico released the support group comprising Tasha, Butch and Pepsi. The dogs were really hot at this stage, and trotting alongside them on one flank, Guy and tracker Jay came face to face with the leopard trying to depart the scene along a narrow game trail in the dense scrub! Guy, Jay and the leopard beat a hasty retreat, the cat giving a grunt as it went. Is it a grunt, that BO? Only a few minutes later, the dogs had the leopard treed in the fork of a large acacia tree, and shortly afterwards the hunters arrived on the scene. The leopard descended once but was quickly worked back into the tree by the dogs. The angle presented made it difficult to get a good look at the cat and the hunters worked their way cautiously and quietly into a better position. The different perspective made the men 100% sure that they had indeed treed the right cat and Captain Bob was given the go ahead. The Captain squeezed off a shot with his .375 H&H and 235 grains of Barnes triple shock struck the leopard solidly, a little far back but passing through the back of the lungs. The cat leaped from the tree and got into an almighty scuffle with the dogs in some seriously prohibitive lantana thorn scrub. The battle raged for a few minutes before Nico decided it was time for him to intervene, or to at least take a look. Crawling into the lantana with his shotgun, Nico assessed the situation for a full fifteen minutes, communicating with his incredible dogs the entire time. God knows what Nico really saw in there. In time, Nico decided to call it quits, lest one of his dogs be killed. Although the leopard would surely die from Captain Bob’s shot, there was no point in prolonging the affair, for the sake of the dogs and for the sake of the leopard. Nico crawled in closer, and when offered a clear shot, killed the leopard. It was over.

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Captain Bob and Guy Whittall with the cat

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What we commonly refer to as a 'horse' of a leopard

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Crossing the Turgwe en route to camp

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What a way to kick off the hunting season eh? Captain Bob Kirwan is not known as first day Bob for nothing. Yes, it has happened to Bob before, a couple of times with other cats. Throughout the chase, cameraman Ryan Neal was on the spot and he got some excellent footage. The hunt ended with the hunters crossing the Turgwe River on foot in order to reach camp, which was not too far from where the action went down. It was a most fitting end to the hunt, with tracker Jay carrying the brute leopard on his shoulders and the hunting dogs fanned out around that man as they forded the river together. When I spoke to those concerned earlier, all any of them could do was sing the praises of Nico’s highly proficient dog pack. I have no doubt that those dogs deserve every accolade.

This has been written in a hurry as I am off to camp now to join this hunt as a number two cameraman. Yes, my season has also started, thank the hunting Gods! I’m sure this write-up is full of mistakes and that there are things I’ve missed, but shall try to brush it up a bit at a later stage. Tomorrow, Pete, Rick, Brent, Nico, Ryan and the hounds will be after leopard, and Guy, Captain Bob, Lymon and I will try our luck with buffalo. I shall keep you posted…….

Dave

PS Jimmy is doing well...