Leopards in the crosshairs: how trophy hunters are gunning for Africa’s elusive cats

Leopards are Africa’s most enigmatic big cats: silent, solitary, and vanishing fast. Behind their fading presence lies a thriving global industry built on prestige, profit, and skull measurements. According to a damning new report, The Leopard Hunters, the stealthy cat is now squarely in the crosshairs. Despite being listed as a Vulnerable species, leopards are still being legally hunted and exported in large numbers each year.

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The Leopard Hunters report, recently released by the Wildlife & Conservation Foundation and Ban Trophy Hunting, is a look into the global trophy hunting industry’s impact on Africa’s leopards. It reveals the identities of high-profile hunters and the companies that facilitate hunts. It also quantifies the international trade in leopard trophies, and exposes the often illegal methods used to hunt leopards. It also details how governments are enabling this trade, often without the data needed to justify it. Drawing on CITES trade data, industry records, and first-hand accounts, the report uncovers how the pursuit of hunting accolades, such as those awarded by Safari Club International, is accelerating the decline of leopard populations.

The report also explores the ecological consequences of selectively removing dominant animals from the wild. Ultimately, the report calls for a critical reassessment of the industry’s claims to conservation.

In 2023 alone, 709 leopard trophies were exported from Africa by international big game hunters – more than half of them to the United States. This, despite leopards being listed as ‘Vulnerable’ under CITES Appendix I: a conservation red flag that bans trade in these species except under exceptional circumstances. This means that the commercial trade in leopards is forbidden. Legal international trade is limited to hunting trophies and skins under export quotas for range states.

Including Canada and Mexico, North American hunters accounted for 403 trophies (57%). European hunters took home 199 leopard trophies (28%), with significant numbers going to Spain, Germany, France, and Hungary.

From predator to prize

Trophy hunting of leopards, as the report reveals, is a horror show. Tales abound of live duikers wired to trees to lure leopards after dark, wounded animals burned out of warthog burrows by igniting petrol poured into the burrows, wounded animals left to suffer for days at a time, and hunts with bows or handguns. The ethics are questionable; the methods grotesque.

The report details how the big cats are baited – often with zebras shot expressly for the purpose – and then shot from hides. They’re then entered into Safari Club International’s prestigious Record Book by measuring their skulls to the sixteenth of an inch. Hunters can win prizes for ‘Predators of the World’ or collect-them-all accolades such as ‘African 29’ (which requires a hunter to shoot at least 29 different African species to win an award).

Many of the most prominent hunts are arranged through commercial safari operators, some of which offer packages costing over $150,000, bundling leopard hunts with lions, elephants, and other species. At least 63 leopard hunts were on sale on BookYourHunt.com at the time of the report’s release.

Big names killing leopards

The report names high-profile individuals involved in record-breaking kills, including a major donor to Donald Trump, a Spanish trophy hunter who has shot 167 leopards, and a former World Wildlife Fund US director. These and other hunters are celebrated within the Safari Club International (SCI), which incentivises the killing of large animals via a competitive points system and Record Book entries based on skull size. There are currently 2,071 leopards listed in SCI’s Record Book, representing documented kills by trophy hunters

Powerful lobbying organisations like SCI and Conservation Force continue to fight for hunting rights, even overturning trophy import bans in places like New Jersey. This raises concerns about the erosion of conservation policy under private influence.

The genetic price of glory

The bigger the skull, the bigger the brag. But scientists warn this has real consequences. The report criticises the ‘artificial selection’ pressure this creates: removing dominant males from the gene pool, which undermines leopard populations’ ability to adapt to environmental challenges. When the largest, healthiest males are selectively removed, the report suggests this weakens gene pools, reduces resilience to disease and climate change, and accelerates the decline of already vulnerable populations.

In the leopard’s case, numbers are estimated by the report authors to have plummeted by up to 90% over the past 50 years, from an estimated 700,000 in the 1960s to about 50,000 today. The report identifies trophy hunting as a significant driver of this collapse. Some African countries have introduced either permanent (Zambia) or temporary (South Africa) hunting moratoriums in response over the years.

Questionable leopard data

One of the most troubling realities is the paradox at the heart of leopard hunting quotas. Despite the leopard’s elusive nature and wide-ranging habitat, which make accurate population estimates notoriously difficult, hunting quotas for the species are often among the most aggressive of any big cat. In some countries, annual export allowances remain high, even as local populations decline. The report raises urgent questions about how these quotas are being set. Without robust, independent, and up-to-date scientific data on leopard numbers, how are governments justifying continued, and in some cases increasing, trophy allocations? The uncomfortable answer may lie in the lobbying influence of hunting organisations and the revenue streams they promise, rather than any defensible conservation science.

A tale of two leopards

And yet, there is hope. The report relays an important case study of a Maasai elder: Boniface Mpario. The veteran Maasai guide tells the story of Mrembo, a leopard he came to know well after spotting it often in the northern Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. The leopard was beloved by tourists, raised cubs under the gaze of telephoto lenses, and became a living asset to her community. One leopard, five daughters, multiple litters – and years of steady ecotourism income.

This is the critical fork in the conservation road: one path leads to dollars earned once from a bullet; the other, to years of revenue from wildlife tourism. One ends in a taxidermy mount, the other in more generations of leopards to come.

So, what now?

The Wildlife & Conservation Foundation has called for an immediate moratorium on leopard trophy hunting. But powerful lobbying groups like Conservation Force and Safari Club International continue to fight for their right to kill with high-calibre rifles.

The continued trophy hunting of leopards, despite mounting conservation concerns, represents a failure of both governance and global wildlife protection systems. It raises uncomfortable questions about whose interests are being served, and at what cost to biodiversity. Without urgent reform, transparent science-based quota systems, and stronger international safeguards, the leopard may join the growing list of species sacrificed for vanity and vague promises of conservation. The time for scrutiny and action is now.

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