Tonight, Our Last Hunting Night

It’s been a great trip even though we have yet to get Top Gun. Once again, he has been elusive. We’ve found his tracks and have trail cam photos of him multiple times. However, he has yet to come to a bait site when we are there. Below are pictures of three different adult male leopards we’ve baited this week. You can see the difference in size mostly in the neck and shoulders. We estimate that Top Gun is about ten years old; the others are probably five and six. We could have taken one of the younger cats earlier and any hunter would have been happy with them. But Top Gun is older and wiser.

Johann doesn’t rely solely on the features that were used to name then when he’s differentiating between the leopards, The spots at the collar are useful as is the size, roman nose, neck, etc. It’s relatively easy to do from daylight trail camera pictures but much harder through binoculars in dim light.

We’ll try to post again tomorrow or Wednesday with the results of tonight’s hunt. If we’re successful and get a crack at Top Gun, we’ll have lots of time. If not, we’ll be hustling back to the lodge in the morning, eating quickly, and making the drive to Windhoek. We fly out Wednesday afternoon.

It’s been a good trip for me. Last fall I broke my 0’fer streak on baboons; this spring it was jackals. I had a nice string of good shooting going since last year until the abysmal shot at the eland… oh boy! There’s no explaining that one. The most Important thing though is that the trip has been relaxing and interesting, I feel great, and I got to spend some quality time with my brother. I can’t ask for much more than that; though Top Gun would be a nice cherry on top!

Feature picture: A couple of kudu females enjoying the shade, I did the same as much as possible here.

JC