Into The Thorns

Chapter Twelve

The Hunting of Leopards

A Conservation Perspective

Not enough is known about the leopard. Even though he is the most widely distributed member of the “big” cats, not many detailed studies of this fascinating animal have been completed. Even hunters, who are fascinated, sometimes even obsessed, by this prince of the forest, know little about him. What he really needs to survive, how many partners he needs in order to maintain his numbers, how large an area he needs in order to live a natural free life. Most of us know the basics but the rest is just guesswork. Many boffins maintain that there is no room for hunting when considering an animal like the leopard, which is endangered in much of its range. Others, who have conducted studies in areas where leopards still exist in healthy numbers, say that hunting can be part of an overall plan in conserving leopards.

Theodore Bailey is one of those. Toward the end of his fascinating book, The African Leopard Ecology and Behaviour of a Solitary Felid, Bailey wrote a chapter titled “The Conservation of Leopards” in which he covers hunting.

Here are some extracts from that chapter:

A controversial alternative that may provide economic incentives to conserve leopards outside of parks and preserves in some countries is a highly regulated hunting program that removes only a small proportion of a leopard population each year. A closely regulated take of leopards may be not only practical but necessary, as some claim (Myers 1974; Eaton 1977b; Myers 1981; Hamilton 1986; Martin and Meulenaer 1988). to promote leopard and other wildlife conservation in Africa. Although I believe it will be increasingly difficult in the long run to justify maintaining wildlife populations solely on economic criteria, because of livestock and agriculture needs and development, hunting may be an effective conservation alternative for the immediate future. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the ethics of hunting leopards outside parks and preserves, hunting can probably be managed to benefit some leopard populations. A closely regulated hunting program for leopards for trophy purposes should not be confused with hunting leopards commercially for the fur trade. To prevent unregulated hunting and poaching of leopards for skins in areas opened to trophy hunting will require increased enforcement of current restrictions on the international trade of Leopard skins – a difficult law enforcement task for most African countries.

Ideally, a hunting program for leopards should be only one part of a more comprehensive program designed to provide conservation-related economic benefits for local inhabitants. Properly managed, it could be combined with tourism or a game cropping operation where selected herbivores are also harvested on a sustained basis for protein or profit. Such programs are already conducted on some large game ranches in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of South Africa and on concessioned lands in Botswana. The hunting of leopards will be best managed on large tracts of land that support ample populations of prey and leopards. After some preliminary surveys an estimate should be made of how many leopards could be removed annually without jeopardizing the population.

Smaller tracts or tracts with highly human-altered wildlife populations will be more difficult to manage because the leopard populations there are likely to be low, with unpredictable annual recruitment. If hunting of leopards from such areas occurs, it must be extremely conservative and accompanied by frequent surveys. All hunting programs should be based on accurate assessments of leopard numbers and annual recruitment.

Further on, he says “The region surrounding a proposed leopard hunting area should be carefully evaluated to determine whether a population is completely isolated or whether leopards in adjacent areas might immigrate into the hunting area to replace removed leopards. If isolated but large enough to support a viable population and sustained hunting, a conservative hunting strategy would be essential – to ensure that harvesting did not deplete individuals faster than they can be naturally recruited into the population. If an influx of males, which bring different genes into the population, is unlikely, problems associated with inbreeding may arise, especially with small populations.

Leopard populations probably should not be hunted unless a minimum effective population size of fifty breeding adults, or at least eighty to one hundred individuals, are present and a viable population of leopards exists in adjacent areas. Hunting smaller, isolated populations may only contribute to their eventual demise. The size of an area that can support eighty to one hundred leopards will vary with habitat quality and may range from three hundred kilometres square in high-quality habitats to five thousand square kilometres in low quality habitats. As a very crude estimate, most proposed hunting areas should be at least two thousand five hundred square kilometres if habitat appears average and is adjacent to other areas supporting leopards.

Many hunters – myself included – have been led to believe that some portion, or percent, of a leopard quota should be females, but Bailey says: Only male leopards should be taken by hunters until further information suggests otherwise. Males seem to be naturally replaced more rapidly than females; they have a higher natural mortality rate; and they are more apt to respond to baits for survey or hunting purposes. Because of their larger size and visible genitalia, they can be easily distinguished from females. Several options are available for estimating hunting rates of males, all of which result in relatively low hunting levels. One method assumes that all natural mortality is compensatory and replaced by hunting mortality. The other more realistic method assumes hunting and natural mortality may not be completely compensatory and may even be additive. One can also base hunting rates on the proportions and natural mortality rates of adult or sub adult males in the population.

Some leopard studies say that up to l0% of a leopard population can be hunted without damaging that population. But Bailey had this to say: Information from the Kruger National Park leopard study areas suggests a hunting rate of four percent to six per cent of a total population may be possible if one assumes complete compensatory mortality. When a hunting level of one-half the natural mortality rate is assumed, the hunting rate declines from two per cent to three per cent of the total population. A hypothetical population of one hundred leopards whose population composition and mortality patterns are similar to leopards in the Kruger National Park study areas are speculated to withstand a hunting kill of at least two, possibly as many as six, male leopards per year. Hunting rates will undoubtedly vary among populations. One computer model of leopard population dynamics predicted a five per cent safe and a ten per cent maximum sustainable harvest level for leopards (Martin and Meulenaer 1988). One factor to consider is whether other, perhaps significant, forms of human-related mortality, such as poaching and poisoning, are already impacting a leopard population. These additional forms of mortality would lower the legal hunting rate.

Hunted leopard populations should be closely monitored to ensure that hunting is not contributing to a population decline. Only selected locations within a hunting area should actually have leopards removed from them. Reduced hunting pressure should be enforced if hunted males are not rapidly replaced. Areas frequented by females, such as koppies and other rocky outcrops used as denning areas, should be avoided to prevent disrupting the females’ habits and their unintentional killing. Actual hunting sites should be specific places where males are periodically observed or attracted to baits. Only specific baiting locations should be hunted, and then only on a rotational basis. For example, if a male was taken at one bait location, the next male removed from the hunting area should be taken at least two to three male-home-range-distances away. This would prevent creating a large vacancy among males, which could prevent or reduce female productivity. Baiting should occur even after a male has been taken to ensure that his replacement has appeared. In healthy leopard populations, males taken by hunters should be replaced within one to six months. To help maintain genetic diversity within the population and reduce the possibility that infanticide will become a significant mortality factor among cubs, newly arriving males should be allowed to reproduce for at least one to two years before being taken by hunters.

This last paragraph illustrates how far we actually are from being able to practice ‘sustainable utilisation’ policies in hunting our leopards. What operator would ever consider only hunting “two to three male-home-range distances away” from where he took his last big Tom leopard? Not many.

So little is known about this animal, and so little is known about what we need to do in order to ensure his survival in good huntable numbers, that I fear if and when we do learn, it will be too late.

The sun slid into the thorn trees and the last evening cries of roosting francolin were suddenly joined by human voices! As they reached the back of the blind I stuck my head out and asked them to quieten down and move along. When I addressed these fellows in hushed tones, the nearest fell down in shock whilst the other back-pedalled about half a dozen yards, his red eyes bulging and his heavy old car-tyre sandals clap-clapping on the hard dirt. The fallen one scrabbled around furiously before he managed to balance himself enough to get upright, whereupon he made off as fast as he could walk. He said absolutely nothing, his rickety thin legs conveying him in a noisy zigzag manner as fast as they could go. I was choked with the urge to laugh. The backpedalling upright singer uttered only a loud “Hau!” before he, too, scuffled off down the road.