Second leopard shot behind my house

Second leopard shot behind my house

I was called to Panda to assist in searching for baby leopard cubs that belonged to a female leopard shot by Ed Cummings as the cat was threatening his dogs and he could not frighten it away. The leopard was lactating and we were unable to find cubs after over 3 hours of searching the thick bush.

Before leaving for Panda I had a report of another dog attacked by leopard. I attended dog and ended doing 3 hours surgery on it to fix a large defect in its right chest that had exposed its lungs.

I immediately went to Mr Seduduma as we now had proof that second leopard was active. I had organized to reset trap and bait the next day to trap second leopard.

On arrival from Panda at 12 pm I was in the bathtub when I heard a gunshot and a hit. I rushed to investigate and discovered my neighbor was parked outside his house with his vehicle running and pointing toward the street. I asked him and he said he had killed the leopard. It had attacked his dog that was not in a fenced in yard but wounds to dog were not severe as I treated them the next day. The leopard was sitting on a large sand hill in the driveway facing the airport road. And was dead from a gunshot to head. This was approximately 50 kg male leopard about 1 ½ years old and brother to previous leopard that was trans located to other side of park.

I advised him to leave carcass and called Mr. Seduduma next morning to pick up carcass. This is second wildlife episode involving this man in a few months. No effort was made by him to contact parks officials to sort the animal wildlife conflict and no effort has been made to build a gate and secure his property. I know of many citizens that are very upset and letters have been sent to the president complaining about citizens taking the law into their own hands. I hope that the department will severely reprimand him and curtail him from having repeat occurrences. He could have easily shot into the air to scare leopard away and we would have trapped and relocated it. At the time of leopards death it was not threatening anyone and was not in the individuals personal property.

LAST DOG ATTACKED - HIS LUNGS WERE OUT THIS HOLE. MIRACULOUSLY THE DOG SURVIVED AND IS WELL

UNFORTUNATELY THIS LEOPARD DID NOT SURVIVE. I WISH I HAD ONE MORE DAY AND I WOULD HAVE TRAPPED HIM

Trap set for leopard in my yard

Trap set for leopard in my yard

On 23/8 we set the bait in the trap and covered our scent tail.

Leopard was caught in trap that night.

On 24/8 Wardens came to my house. I darted leopard with 1.5 cc Zoletil and it was rapidly sedated. On examination it was a young leopard approximately 1 ½ years old male (in the event of a female in lactation we would have released it) the size of its mouth and bite radius was consistent with the wounds that had been inflicted on 2 dogs that I had examined.

Leopard was loaded into parks truck and we immediately relocated it about 10 kilometers west of Ihaha camp on the riverfront were it had plenty of food and water. It is your hope that it will be able to survive. It is a pity we did not have a radio collar to monitor its progress.

On returning to home that evening I was able to download pictures from the camera on to computer and much to my surprise there were 2 leopards that had hit the bait 3 nights before. I immediately informed Mr. Gadimang and we discussed the fact that we would see if any more incidents were reported before attempting to trap second cat. It appears that this is the relocated leopard’s mother as it is much larger. It is my guess she was teaching her son how to hunt.

On 8.27.2010 I heard gunshots near the house and on investigating found the warden that lives nearby has seen and shot into the air to scare a large leopard. The tracks were consistent with a large cat.

Hopefully it will not threaten other dogs and residents.

THIS IR CAMERA TOOK PICTURE. THERE ARE 2 LEOPARDS. WE DID NOT KNOW AS WE HAD NO SOFTWARE TO LOAD PICTURE ON TO COMPUTER UNTIL 4 DAYS LATER

How to catch a leopard

How to catch a leopard

I have its M.O. now. It likes the cover of darkness, feels safe in yards that are fully walled in from outside prying eyes, victims that are alone and it attacks from above and behind going for vital organs and surprise it overcomes its prey…..

This may sound like a crime scene from Dexter but in fact is a real problem which I seriously have to address. The night stalker is a young leopard that has taken a taste for the plentiful dog population of Kasane.

It’s been 8 days since my personal dog Minnie was attacked in my back yard. She was lucky and has survived due to prompt medical attention and scaring the leopard away.

Others have not been so lucky. On the weekend a dog was taken just 3 blocks away. National parks were prompt to put out a trap. I was called early on Monday morning to attend to the leopard they had captured. As I shook my sleepy head in disbelief that it had been so easy to catch and went to investigate. In the well camouflaged cage I found a huge female Hyena had been caught. She had made so much noise no one would go near the cage to examine her. We released the poor thing.

At 10:30 this evening I get a call from a panicked neighbor. The stalker had attacked again. Throwing on my clothes and grabbing some towels and a flashlight I rushed to the house 2 blocks away. The Dog was down and howling in pain. A huge wound was visible on its spine.

We rushed him to the clinic where I started an IV, pumped shock drugs into him. To no avail the heart stopped, after intubation and CPR, 3 injections of adrenaline into the heart, I gave up. Spinal shock is often the cause of fatal injury. The poor owner was overcome with grief. This is a part of my profession I always have a hard time dealing with.

So now to the task at hand to capture and relocate this leopard. I thank many of you that have given me invaluable advice especially Hendrik from Compass track safaris that has huge experience in this field. I have already IR cameras out to try and see when and where this cat is coming into my yard but have not had success yet. I’m sure it will be back.

This is not an easy task and I assume many more dogs will succumb before it’s over with. Tomorrow I will have the community PA system warn the population of the danger in the hope that they will keep their dogs and children indoors after dark. I shudder to think what it would do to a child……

Baits will be hung and traps will be set. I assure you every effort will be taken to trap this animal. I just hope some trigger happy individual doesn’t start shooting wildly in the middle of the night and kills or injures one of his neighbors.

This is a classic Human wildlife conflict….
Never a dull moment.

MINNIE FULLY RECOVERED

Minnie our outside dog gets attacked by Leopard

Minnie our outside dog gets attacked by Leopard

Minnie our outside dog was attacked by a leopard last might in our yard. It jumped on here from the wall and bit her in the neck and scratched her shoulder. Fortunately we heard the cries and ran outside and scared it away. She was bleeding excessively and luckily we were able to stop it with a pressure bandage, she was deep in shock and would have died. Today I operated on her. The hole from the canine tooth was so deep I had to suture 4 layers. She is resting comfortably under the influence of morphine. We now have to trap the leopard before it kills other dogs. Lucky girl we love her.

SMALL LEOPARD TRACKS IN YARD

JUGULAR VEIN JUST MISSED

Unbelievable twist of events, Buffalo with snare

Unbelievable twist of events, Buffalo with snare

I was awakened yesterday morning to sound of gunshots near my house. I went to investigate and to my astonishment discovered that the buffalo I had treated for a snare a few weeks ago was lying there dead. I did notice some fresh blood on the wound but was so distressed I did not examine it properly and went off in a heap of depression. What am I doing here?? What is the use of fighting this battle? Laura being diligent took pictures but I could not face it. In disgust I ran to the parks department and complained to the head warden. It apparently had been shot by the Problem Animal Control as they said it had been aggressive and was dragging behind a wire snare. The head warden had agreed with me that it was an untimely and harsh response from the department. He knows how much I care about the animals and had a meeting to order his staff that no animal is to be shot without consulting me first unless human life is being threatened. I thanked him for his prompt and effective handling of the situation and went off on a wildlife call, feeling that something good had come out of the episode.

That evening I was sent on a wild goose chase to take blood from a dead elephant 200 km way. I will post that story later. On examination of Photos laura took of this buffalo one can see how good of condition he was compared to when I first treated him. Unbelievably on closer examination there is second snare that had caught him over the original wound that was healing. This is incredible and to think that this is in my backyard and not in the deep bush it boggles the mind.

Rule still stands no animals shot without my assistance. Incredibly 2 months have gone by since this incident and there had not been a single animal shot whereas before it was a daily occurrence

BUFFALO KILLED BY PAC LOOK AT HOW GOOD HIS CONDITION WAS COMPARED TO FIRST DAY I TREATED HIM

 

IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY YOU CAN SEE A SECOND SNARE OVER ORIGINAL HEALING WOUND