Leopard Hunting - Outdoors - Hunting

The Leopard, is the smallest of the Big Five hunted animals, however this does not make it any safer than the other big five dangerous hunts.

The Leopard is at its most dangerous once wounded, and is very likely to attack in retaliation. Leopards are typically shy, solitary nocturnal animals. The Leopards habitat is spread widely across the whole of Africa.

Leopard can go long times without water as they are able to drink the blood from their prey, that said they will regularly drink water when ever it is available.

Adult Leopards eat about 20 percent of their own body weight from a single feed. The male 'Tom' can weigh from 120 up to 200 pounds, females are smaller from 70 up to 130 pounds, appearing notably thinner than the male tom.

After a kill Leopards drag their prey up trees to keep it out of reach of larger competing predators. Often dragging dead prey heavier than their own weight up into the tree tops.

Leopards will feed on any source of meat, and even scavenged rotten meat from dead animals. The Impala is one of their favourite meal and is often used as bait while hunting the Leopard.

Leopards are highly territorial and a excellent killers, they have exceptional eyesight and hearing requiring stealth to hunt successfully. Even once you have taken a shot and hit the Leopard approach with great care, Leopards are well camouflaged and a master of stealth, appearing to attack you from out of nowhere.

The most common way to hunt the Leopard is by bait, with an Impala hung from a tree with an open view, with the hunter waiting in ambush. As the Leopard is mainly a nocturnal hunter, it is extremely difficult to get the right shot as we must hunt the Leopard during the daylight hours. As they are the smallest of the big five dangerous hunts, the Leopard can be taken with calibers as small as.270 or 7mm. However, in African countries the.375 is the minimum legal caliber.

Once you have wounded the Leopard and intend to follow them into the bush to finish them off, you may be better with a shot Gun, or double barrel rifle to ensure you hit the leopard if it ambushes you. Failure to hit them on time could result in serious injury.

At first a Leopard could easily be mistaken for a cheetah, however looking closer there are some apparent differences

Leopard

Large,muscular predator, up to 200 punds.

The Leopard is a more powerful than the cheetah.

The leopard has rosette shaped spots, covering their whole body and face.

Leopards eyes have white linings at the bottom, which assists their night vision reflecting light into their eyes.

Leopards claws are fully retractable.

Cheetah

Cheetah is taller and slender in build than the Leopard.

Cheetah's head is smaller in proportion to the rest of their body.

The Cheetah has a larger size nostril, allowing greater intake of oxygen when running at speed.

Cheetah's tails are flatter, and act as a rudder, balancing the Cheetah when running.

Rather than rosette shaped spots, Cheetah's have larger individual spots, covering their body, but only lighter spots on the face.

The Cheetah has black lines running from their eyes, to the mouth. Unlike the Leopard they hunt during the day, and the black line absorbs light, rather than reflects it to minimise the blinding glare of the sun.

Cheetah can only retract its front dew claw used to take down and kill prey. The rest of their claws are permanently out, giving them better grip while running.

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