Leopard Quota in SA for 2018

[sierraone]

Can you say confusing?

 

[johnnyblues]

Yeah, but just imagine the monsters that will be coming out of the Lowveld.

I can just imagine!!

 

[johnnyblues]

As always this just seems to be the typical African circus show. When will they get their act together? This has so much potential handled properly. DID I HEAR 30K...going once.. twice...

 

[sierraone]

As always this just seems to be the typical African circus show. When will they get their act together? This has so much potential handled properly. DID I HEAR 30K...going once.. twice...

Johnny....Is that a serious estimate?

 

[johnnyblues]

Johnny....Is that a serious estimate?

Oh no doubt.....Watch and see... As limited as these permits will be...And the potential for a monster cat! No doubt in my mind they will ask that.

 

[Wheels]

How would this save the SA population ?

It wouldn't!

But we already know that by reading what you have said.

... time is running out . This allocation has been known for more than a month .... nothing happens . I doubt if anything will .
.

So why waste hunters time by jumping through hoops if nothing is going to happen.

Research done by Pantera concluded that on 7 year and older males there is absolute no impact on the population . So why only 7 out of 150 allocation with the 7 year male only criteria !??? It is an absolute JOKE ! Nobody in their scientific Authority can confirm the difference between a 4 , 5 , 6 or 7 year old cat . Most of them cannot even pick males and females apart ..

What PH is going to put his license, freedom from imprisonment, financial well being, etc. on the line to guarantee that a leopard is seven years old?

SA private owners will never tolerate cats for 7 years in order to MAYBE one day get a return .... Females have NO value ....they are the supply chain . ..

I agree completely with you, Richard! RSA is literally killing their leopard population. Except for a few landowners who are trying to do things right. Instead of shooting and burying marauding leopards, might as well at least let the Shembe have a good party and dance.

A quota of seven leopards will not save the RSA leopards either. It will have to be much higher than that. CITES is probably closer to a correct number to save the leopard population.


I looked at @Graham Hunter 's question as that of a hunter trying to figure out where to hunt leopard. My response was that leopard hunting was probably going to be much simpler outside of RSA. Nothing else.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Oh no doubt.....Watch and see... As limited as these permits will be...And the potential for a monster cat! No doubt in my mind they will ask that.

If you're wrong, it's to the low side would be my guess.

 

[johnnyblues]

I agree Phil. These guys know what that tag is worth in SA. Heck some outfits are getting 30 k in Zim . Next problem is the import tag...That's not going real well from what I hear. Rosella from SSI has been waiting quite a while for some clients.

 

[Wheels]

If you're wrong, it's to the low side would be my guess.

Agree completely. The legitimate chance at an 8'+, 180lb+ leopard may run 40-50k. A 200 pound'r on bait ???

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Agree completely. The legitimate chance at an 8'+, 180lb+ leopard may run 40-50k. A 200 pound'r on bait ???

Hopefully the bulk is in a trophy fee. What would concern me is what @SafariA is saying about the poaching of the problem cats. Leopards aren't stupid, particularly those who've felt abnormally high human pressure. It might would seem these initial hunts for leopard since the quota was set to zero may be easy since there's been no hunting pressure. But I wouldn't count on it.

 

[npm352]

I think this idea that because legal leopard hunting has been cancelled for a few years there will be a bunch of old and giant cats may not be true. I do not live in RSA, but it sounds like the cats got killed anyway illegally when things shut down. And with animals that cannot be fenced with huge ranges (male leopards) it takes a lot of landowners not killing to make any kind of difference.

Unless people are greasing palms there is not way a PH would risk shooting a big one and just hoping it is truly 7. Just make the law that it needs nuts and call it good. This isnt like bighorn sheep where you can count growth rings through a spotting scope.

It is a step in the right direction, but a joke if they think only 7 year old cats will get shot.

 

[Wheels]

Hopefully the bulk is in a trophy fee. What would concern me is what @SafariA is saying about the poaching of the problem cats. Leopards aren't stupid, particularly those who've felt abnormally high human pressure. It might would seem these initial hunts for leopard since the quota was set to zero may be easy since there's been no hunting pressure. But I wouldn't count on it.

There are places where the landowner is taking care of the leopards to his own determent. As I mentioned earlier. There is a ph that seems to be getting more leopards on bait than ratels, and virtually all of his hunters that want one go home with a ratel.

 

[tigris115]

Yea I feel that just 7 animals is WAY too few

 

[LivingTheDream]

I'm betting 50k plus!

 

[BWH]

7+yr old Male Leopards only.....

 

[Red Leg]

I think this idea that because legal leopard hunting has been cancelled for a few years there will be a bunch of old and giant cats may not be true. I do not live in RSA, but it sounds like the cats got killed anyway illegally when things shut down. And with animals that cannot be fenced with huge ranges (male leopards) it takes a lot of landowners not killing to make any kind of difference.

Unless people are greasing palms there is not way a PH would risk shooting a big one and just hoping it is truly 7. Just make the law that it needs nuts and call it good. This isnt like bighorn sheep where you can count growth rings through a spotting scope.

It is a step in the right direction, but a joke if they think only 7 year old cats will get shot.

There are a lot of places in South Africa where the leopards are not being killed or trapped (cheetahs may be a different story). In fact, I think that is true for the vast majority of game ranches. Indeed it is they who have been providing most of the trail camera evidence to support PHASA efforts to secure some release of permits. As recently as last month in the Limpopo in the Waterberg foothills we saw leopard sign just about everywhere - as abundant as I have ever seen in high success areas of Namibia. A number of those tracks were huge. I would agree aging a cat will be difficult, but it is done with lions in Tanzania. I would expect that if it really becomes a requirement, the specialists with the permits will get really good at it.

Leopards do not have the same impact on game populations as do cheetah. Even where there are a lot, their density is relatively low. And because they return to a kill, they kill at a much slower pace than will a cheetah. Cattle ranches are a different story, and land owner tolerance for leopard predation is much lower. But those vast cattle ranches are more typical of Namibia.

 

[CAustin]

A start for sure. Hope springs eternal that in a year or so RSA will isssue a lot of tags.

 

[Fred Gunner]

tough time keeping leopards off his honey badger baits

Mr. Chui don't care about no Honey Badger...

 

[RogerHeintzman]

Yeah, but just imagine the monsters that will be coming out of the Lowveld.

Marius, you gonna try for a license some where?

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Absolutely Roger.