A recent report published in Oxford Academic by Trouwborst, Loveridge and Macdonald compares CITES hunting trophy export quotas for African range states to established benchmarks.

Throughout their range leopards are in rapid decline, having disappeared from North Africa, much of the Middle East and Asia. Declines have been so severe that the species is now considered vulnerable to extinction. No comprehensive estimates of the number of leopards remaining in the wild exist.

Of all Africa’s big cats, leopards are objectively the picture of perfection.

Lion, jaguar and leopard body parts are being increasingly sought as substitutes to tiger products by traffickers, a major UN report has found, but demand for ivory and rhino horn has shown signs of a sustained fall.

While disturbance by humans is known to result in declines in leopard populations, there is also significant evidence to suggest that it also results in demography changes to age, sex and social structure of populations.

A grimace revealing powerful yellow incisors clearly indicated we were too close.

Just 35 minutes from Pretoria you will find Gauteng’s first and only free-roaming Big 5 game reserve open to the public – Dinokeng Game Reserve.

The hunting season for many species in South Africa has just begun. This has prompted people interested in leopard conservation to make enquiries regarding the leopard hunting quota for SA for 2021 – a task that should be quite simple, given that the public is legally allowed access to this information.

In recent years, ecologists have been able to confirm the existence of species previously thought to be lost from former parts of their range.

In May 2022, the news broke of the tragic death of leopard Hosana, one of the well-known leopards of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa.

At night, in the African bush, a zebra carcass dangles from a tree, rigged as bait. Nearby, a hunter waits in a hide, rifle trained, night-vision goggles focused. When the leopard arrives — silent, cautious, regal — it climbs for its meal. A crack splits the night. The cat falls, dead before it hits the ground.

Animals of the same species don’t always look the same. From birds with different beak shapes to mammals that vary in size or colour, populations living in different places can often look very different.