MATABELELAND SAFARIS

In the period 1984 to 1999 we have been doing intensive research on leopards. During this period, we were working on and studying leopard almost on a daily basis. Since then, leopards and leopard research and observation have always been part of our focus, but not on a daily basis any more. We accumulated such a wealth of knowledge and experience, and it also sensitized us to “observe and interpret” leopard behaviour on a much more advanced level than normal.

Doing problem animal control on leopard since 1983. Once a leopard has been exposed to been hunted (and poisoned), they can become extremely wary. Such leopards can then only be hunted if you are very skilled and experienced, and you are able to think outside the box. Sometimes you have to deviate 180° from the norm to stimulate a leopard to do what you want him to do.

We have made special effort to develop our senses are high level, and attuned it to pick up, identify and interpret the smallest nuances of sound, smell, signs associated with leopard activity, both directly and indirectly. Due to all the thousands of hours spent on leopard, even the slightest sound or whiff of scent will activate our senses to stand up.    

Experience – leopard hunting cannot be learned from books. The more time spent hunting leopards, and the more leopards hunted with success, creates a leopard hunting jewel box that is priceless. The last thing we would like to do is to boast by throwing figures on the table, but it is both very substantial in terms of numbers as well as years. Both figures correlate with our extraordinary success.

The more experienced you become as a leopard hunter, the more able you are to accumulate as much information and triggers that the leopard actively sends out or leaves behind, both directly and indirectly. Many leopards that are hunted by less experienced leopard hunters, are often called “easy leopards”. But once there are no easy leopards in the area of hunt, the challenge to correctly interpret the situation on the ground becomes too big for the hunter, and this is when clients return home empty-handed.

We are in a certain way old-school in the way we work leopard, as we started leopard hunting before the time of technology like trails cameras, night visors and Cyber Tracker. All of this we now also use in our leopard hunting. We started off with cutting track sticks and doing track studies, and we refined this up to a level where we could determine between all the different leopards of an area, just based on studies of tracks. Sitting at night on elevated points in the topography, listening to alarm calls of different prey species, and then go look in places where we expected the leopards to have walked the previous night. By looking at aerial photographs, we can effectively select places in any area where you might find leopard, where there could be marking trees of leopards. We did many thousands of miles on foot, in leopard and black mamba infested areas and ravines, observing and studying leopard. In farming in Southern Africa, there is a saying – “A farmer’s footprints is the best fertilizer for farming success.” Similarly, the many millions of footprints left behind in the African Savannah by us, are our fertilizer and the reason for our hunting success - not only on leopard, but on all species that we offer to hunt.

We refined the art of selecting the best locations to bait. In Zimbabwe, the first consideration is to minimize the risk of being surprized by a breeding herd of elephant whilst sitting in a blind. We also refined the art of baiting and where to and how to drag. Sometimes dragging with intestines doesn’t have the required response. If we have a particularly big leopard tomcat, that doesn’t come onto the bait with intestines, we will use a mixture of blood and intestines, and still no response, we will use fish and use our drag mix of fish. Some of the really big tomcats are extremely wary, due to prior bad experiences. To us, such a cat becomes a exciting challenge!

Selecting the best locations for constructing blinds, and then the way we construct our blinds. We pay serious attention to wind direction. We need to interpret catabatic wind versus anabatic wind, and also when the change over between them happens, often with a 180° change in wind direction. How we prevent lions coming into our leopard blinds. Then lastly, our behaviour in the blind is crucial. You form part of the hunting team, and you will know exactly what to do, and what to expect. Sometimes, a big and wary tomcat, will come to inspect, and how to react in such an event.