African Leopards

[chui_]

I posted this on the old Carnivora forum a few years ago and I've seen it circulating around the internet since. I thought I'd share it here in my own words so there is some clarity. The info and photo I received directly from Robin Anthony Hurt.

The following is a photo of a forest leopard hunted in north eastern DR Congo in 1984 (then Zaire). It was the only leopard ever taken in the Congo by experienced professional hunter Robin Anthony Hurt and it turned out to be his biggest. According to Hurt the skull was over 11 inches long and he estimated the weight to be around 220lbs – he said it looked nearly as big as a lioness. His opinion after decades of professional hunting is that the biggest leopards in Africa are those from the forests of Central Africa and also the mountain forests of East Africa. He is currently based in Namibia where he says some leopards can also get pretty huge but those are more exceptional. Peter Turnbull-Kemp who also had experience with leopards as a game warden throughout Africa (Nigeria/Cameroon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa) also reached the same conclusion – they can get big anywhere but the biggest tend to be from the equatorial forests – the biggest he ever saw was in Cameroon.

There are at least 7 leopard skulls in museum collections from DR Congo (former Belgian Congo) which are over 270mm. Unfortunately we don’t know what those huge leopards would’ve looked like but this huge specimen killed in the same general area gives us some idea. It could easily be placed among the photos of male Pantanal jaguars hunted by Tony Almeida and not look out of place.

Big forest leopard hunted by client of Robin Anthony Hurt in DR Congo, 1984.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Trophy hunting was closed in DR Congo since but poaching has been rampant in this very unstable and war torn part of Africa. Reply