Last minute rescue ... for the caged Leopard

After a midnight rescue mission to save a trapped leopard, police had to be called in when a Bredasdorp farmer allegedly refused to release the cat caught in a cage on his property.

The farmer, currently being investigated by CapeNature, eventually agreed to hand over the leopard which was found still trapped and dehydrated last week.

Yesterday, Kas Hamman, head of CapeNature’s biodiversity section, said members were told about the cat, a female of about nine, caught in a live trap cage placed by CapeNature. It was not injured.

Hamman said he received a request from a SANParks official to have the leopard transferred to the Addo National Park in the Eastern Cape.

He denied the request.

“It’s our policy that a leopard can’t be moved more than a 100km radius from it’s natural territory. This has genetic implications and we want to protect their genetic integrity,” Hamman said.

He said staff members along with Bool Smuts, an Eastern Cape vet and director of the Landmark Foundation, had then gone to the farm to get the leopard so they could release it nearby.

“This involved GPS collars, researchers, and a veterinarian rushing across the landscape in the middle of the night to effect this rescue.”

Smuts said the farmer had demanded that the team leave as they were trespassing.

The team left the farm and returned with police at 8am.

“When we arrived again, the cat and the cage had been removed from its veld position to an undisclosed concealed area,” Smuts said.

He said the farmer refused to show them where the leopard was and police then wanted to arrest him.

Smuts then intervened and the farmer, in exchange for R7 500, led them to the caged leopard which was locked in a shed. Hamman said the farmer’s actions were being probed. He said the leopard was found in a “very bad state”. “It was dehydrated. We put it on a drip for the whole morning.”

The leopard, fitted with a collar so its movements could be tracked, was later released in the De Hoop Nature Reserve.

The Cape Times was unable to reach the farmer yesterday.