Hunting Portal
Namibia

 No two Leopards are alike, either in the markings or the ground colour, but in general they tend to have black spots on a lighter colour underneath, ranging from a off-white to a soft yellow. But also in size and weight vast differences are recorded. Leopards from the southern Cape province have a mass of about 36 kg /79 lb, while male specimen have form Zimbabwe and Namibia can weigh as much as 60 kg /132 lb and more.

Leopards are only rarely seen during the day since they are primarily active at dusk and at night and not because this species has been ”decimated by hunters because of its skin”, as some “conservationists” will claim.

Leopards are solitary. They feed on a wide range of warm-blooded species from mice to predators twice their size. On farmland, they can cause severe damage through feeding on all animals up to the size of calves.

By virtue of the Washington Convention (CITES Convention) leopards are a specially protected species. At the 6th CITES (Convention in the Trade of Endangered Species) meeting in 1987 in Ottawa, documentation suggested that the African leopard, by no means, with a population of about 700.000 in Africa. This is the reason why in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, individual leopards can now be hunted legally with the necessary permit issued by nature conservation authorities. Controlling the number of leopards through hunting as a positive effect on their population, as high trophy fees compensate the farmer for the damage suffered through them, as explained in the cheetah description.

Under consideration of all biological factors, a research team of scientist produced findings that 322 leopards could be hunted annually as trophy animals in Namibia without decimating the population. Leopards are best hunted with a lure, the hunter hiding in waiting close by.