Yup, nice cat huh.
I think it's my second biggest ever and the one with the 500 Jeffery sized hole in it's face wasn't much smaller. That cat looks smaller because the guy holding it is about 6 foot 6 and built like a brick shithouse.
That Botswana area seems to have more Leopards in it than any other area I've hunted. We put 3 baits up and in 24 hours we had 3 toms feeding on them and to cut a long story short, I was able to give the client the choice of three - the choice was of two that looked like they'd be good representatives of the species and we could take withing two or three days or this bigger one that would take us a week to before he got comfortable on the bait. - As it was, it took longer and I think we took this one on about day 13 of the 14 day hunt. I'm glad to say, the client, who is also a great friend and a great hunter, shot it absolutely dead right with the first shot............ those night time follow ups are never pleasant!
During the 8 weeks or so I huted that area last year, we had 3 occasions where we found Leopard kills that had happened only minutes before. When we followed and untangled the tracks, it looked like the Leopards had learned to use hunters to flush the game and then nail it as it went by. They ain't stupid huh?
The picture where Eddie, my tracker is holding the cat was in the Selous GR in Tanzania and I was lucky enough to be able to offer him a similar choice. - He took the other option and opted for the easier, but slightly smaller cat. It's still not a bad cat though and easily made the legal minimum.
FWIW, if any of you guys get the African Sporting Gazette over there, you'll fine a piece I've written in there about Leopard hunting.