South Africa imposes temporary ban on leopard hunts

Temporary ban: Hunters have been stopped from targeting leopards for the first time in decades
PA
Jamie Bullen13 March 2016

Hunters in South Africa have been banned from targeting leopards, it has emerged.

The South African Government has imposed a temporary ban on leopard hunts for the 2016 season because numbers of the species cannot be firmly established.

The move is the first of its kind in decades and comes in the wake of a global uproar last year over the killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe by a US dentist.

The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), a Government research organisation, recommended a temporary ban to be put in place.

John Donaldson, SANBI's director of research, said: "There is uncertainty about the numbers and this is not a permanent ban, but we need more information to guide quotas.”

Leopard numbers have been difficult to count given their secretive and nocturnal nature.

Mr Donaldson said most were from protected areas and national parks, not private lands based on studies and data.

But the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) said this gave an incomplete picture.

"There are lots of leopards on private land," said PHASA chief executive Tharia Unwin.

South Africa has also been scorched by its worst drought on record and Unwin said this was good for leopard numbers as predators typically thrive when the rains are poor, leaving their prey in a weakened and easy-to-kill state.

Unwin said it cost up to $20,000 to shoot a leopard and several of PHASA's members had to refund clients who had put down deposits for leopard hunts.

Most of the foreign hunters who come to South Africa for such game are American.

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