Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Botswana Cattle Killing PAC Leopard

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

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 hunt up more fully. They did get two permits for exportable leopard for NG 49 but not for CT 27.

M3,

Straight out of the pages of Corbett or Anderson. If he killed it with a 7x57 or a 405 Winchester - even better!

Thanks for sharing with us homebound wretches

JD - I'm still "homebound" my self, unfortunately. BUT, if the WuFlu gods will permit it and our tickets don't CNX and the Bots boarders are open, I'll be there this Aug.

I know Kevin and I know the coral this happened at. There were a lot leopard tracks in that entire area both times I hunting there last year. During the heyday of leopard hunting before it was shut down, Gerhard 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.

M3,
Here’s wishing you good luck for your trip!

As far as African hunting goes, I’ve always thought that leopards with dogs would be the most exciting thing to do. Talk about putting the ‘Dangerous’ back in ‘Dangerous Game’. That and hunting buffalo with a muzzleloader are the only two things that I still fantasize about doing.

About 12-14 years ago my wife and I were talking to JJ Hack about a combo hunting and sightseeing trip. My wife went in for her annual mammogram and they found a spot about the size of a grain of sand. No problem, she was going in for a lumpectomy and the lab in our little town did a needle biopsy. The day we’re driving to the hospital for the lumpectomy we got a call from the oncologist and everything changed. She had a double radical mastectomy and 30 months of follow up treatments. Long story short, we never went to Africa but things turned out very well for her...a trade that I’d make anytime.

M3,

Nice leopard.

What are the current PAC regulations in Botswana? Probably cannot export but are the costs lower for PAC cats? If luck was on your side and you happened to be in the right place, right time, I would prefer a PAC hunt.

Can't help but wonder if the increase in Mr. Spots is related to the hunting ban that Botswana put in place a few years ago.

In 2006 after unsuccessful bait hunts for leopard in Zim and RSA, I hunted them with dogs in Bots. First morning 45 minutes into the hunt, the leopard was in the salt. Shot him in midair 8 feet off the muzzle with 12 gauge SSG on a full charge and he landed at my feet. The leopard was bayed up in low blackthorn as we drove up. My feet had just hit the ground when he came. The shakes lasted longer than the hunt. We were in the Kalahari in the Hainaveld area.

Johnny D - still not to late to make a trip. To be honest, the best deals on good leopard are probably in Namibia. Take a look at my thread on the two leopard my friend has routinely hitting baits there. Really hard to find a deal like that and that is his normal price even before the the WuFlu shutdown. I'd have to steer you away from Namibia on buffalo as they are pricey there. My friend in Botswana and his business partner did win two concessions in Botswana with elephant quota on both and one has two leopard permits and two buffalo permits. There prices are about middle of the road.

However, what I could help you put together is a kick'n 7-days of PG hunting and then a 7-10 days tour of Botswana with a few days in Vic Falls for both you and your lovely wife and if you'd like, I'll tag along and be your private guide and driver - all my expenses out of my own pocket.

PintoG - Current PAC regs in Botswana are the same across the board. Can ONLY be hunted by Botswana PH's/citizens with a valid "reason" and under a permit and not exportable under any conditions. Outfitters/PH's are prohibited from even advertising any/all PAC hunts. He says that the Govt plans to keep PAC hunts that way at least for the foreseeable future. There were a LOT of issues with PAC hunts in the past.

From what I've gathered from Gerhard, the leopard numbers have always been high in most of Bots. That was one reason he was able to put his client on so many in such a short period of time. I believe the number did increase a bit when the trophy hunting ban was put on, but then the farmers/ranchers just started shooting them to protect cattle and small stock (goats/sheep). They no longer had any monetary value and therefore were a detriment to their operations and just another "pest".

JD - I've never done it but that video Gerhard showed me........[bleep] that was fast. He was on the PAX side, open top, windshield down and shotgun at kind of a modified "port arms". Cat was somewhere in some sort of thorn thicket, heard it growl once and was literally at the end of the muzzle when he pulled the trigger. Cat bounced off the bakkie's fender. There were claw marks on the fender and top of the hood cowl less than 1/2 a meter from where Gerhard was sitting. Not sure I'd have the stones for that and I've been shot at and blown up.

I was standing in the back of the Cruiser with my PH as we followed the Bushman who were following the dogs. He had bayed up 3 times and run out away as we drove up. My PH told me as we followed that he wouldn’t run again so be ready to shoot when we get there. He said leopards will pick out a target for the charge and ignore others and that he would make eye contact with his target. As we drove up, the leopard looked right at me as my feet hit the ground. He immediately smacked a dog in front of him and came. We were about 9-10’ front from the edge of the blackthorn patch when he went airborne. Done and dusted less than 10 seconds after we arrived and he just happened to pick me for a target. On the previous hunt, the leopard ignored both hunter and PH, neither of whom had a shot, jumped in the back of the truck, and mauled a dog handler before they had an open shot and killed him. In the Kalahari where trees are not numerous, leopard bay up in thorn patches on the ground and a charge is damn near a sure bet.

Exciting stuff! Congrats

J$ - for some odd reason while reading your close encounter of the leopard kind, I remembered the old "Coon Hunt" story Jerry Clower would tell years ago.

https://youtu.be/-AX9QoFhEhI

Problem solved. Problem staying solved, at least until another cat moves in!

Taking them off one of their own kills is always good.

I was involved with one like that. It had killed I think nine calves from one ranch in about a month.

I showed up in Africa for plains game. First day there,the PH said we need to take care of a leopard on a neighboring ranch. We tracked where it had dragged a calf in and out of dry river bed for about a mile, then it double backed on itself and deposited the calf in a brush pile in the river bed about 200 yards from the back door of the ranch house. We sat up a ground blind next to the calf at about 3 pm with jackals trying to eat the calf but afraid of the leopard smell. A couple of hours later the leopard showed up, sending the jackals off yelping, and then laid down in the brush and totally disappeared. I will never forget how if I looked hard for a few minutes through the binoculars I would begin to see a spot or two appear. If I didn't know exactly where it was, I would have never seen it. No telling how money of those animals I've walked passed without seeing over there.

I thought the elderly mother of the rancher was going to kiss me on the lips. I'm not sure what all she was saying but she did say baie danke about 30 times, which is the only phrase I understand in the Afrikaans.

I took this cheetah a couple of years ago in Namibia a day after it had killed four sheep on a neighboring ranch. A fun spot and stalk hunt.

My friend Jan in Namibia is currently playing "cat and mouse" with a cheetah that's been circling his goat pen the past week. It's a combination of regular low, woven wire fence with a couple of meters of thorn bushes extending outside beyond the wire. He's sat a couple of nights but, the cat is pretty clever and never gets close enough to see while he's there.

Side story - one of his childhood classmates is part of the "Africat" foundation in Namibia. To be honest, they have done some pretty good work. Anyway.....We were going to a store in Windhoek one day and Jan was explaining about a text message he'd received the previous day from her about one of "their collard lions". It was directed to him as President of the conservancy area (nearly 1m US acres). She was asking him to please ask all the members of the conservancy to NOT kill one of their collard lions that had been killing cattle for the past several months. Just as we were getting out of the truck, she just happens to pull into the parking lot. They exchange polite greeting in Afrikaans (I speak and understand a little bit) and she asks him if he got her message. He said he did and she continues about please don't kill "her" lion etc and Jan just lets her prattle on a bit and finishes her side. Jan says why sure, they'd be more than happy to leave "her" lion alone provided "she" paid the ranchers for all the cattle and small stock it had killed and will kill in the future. Oh, we don't have that kind of money to which Jan replied, neither do we! Either find your lion and remove it from the conservancy, pay the bill or it will meet it's maker.

And THAT is the biggest problem with the anti hunting and animal rights people and groups, they expect "the bills" to be paid for their altruistic ideals and not themselves.

A pack of Great Pyrenees would protect cattle, I think.

Conrad - I've read those are a great breed of dog. Not sure how, with their heavy thick fur, would handle the summer heat (high 90's - low 100's) and thorn bushes everywhere. Jan does keep a couple of small terrier type mixed breed dogs that live in the goat coral. Not so much for protection of the sheep but more of an alarm system. Their barking can discourage a cat from trying to get in, but won't stop a seriously hungry one.

Like you can see from the picture above, leopard and cheetah are like the best domestic "mouser" cat...just on steroids. Put a cat in a room with a dozen mice and it will kill them all in short order. Same with leopard and cheetah. They get into a corral (Kaarl in Afrikaans) and the panic of the animals in the confined space just make the cats go into a killing frenzy. He says lion will do the same thing but he hasn't experienced that on his place....yet. The other two he has.

Don't know how long any dog would survive against a leopard...Might try a Anatolian Shepherd. They are bred to protect livestock, and they are a big canine.

A single dog won’t survive a leopard attack. A pack of large dogs probably would. A decent size male leopard weighs about 150 lbs and is a chainsaw with fur.