Responsible travel news from the field - On Track Safaris

We have succeeded in banning leopard hunting in our locality, following a most disturbing event. Late last year one of our study animals ‘Warrior’ was shot and killed by international hunters.

I must emphasise that although grossly abhorrent, this was carried out legally under CITES licence. However, we used this unscrupulous act to lobby provincial authorities and by using moral pressure and hard evidence, we persuaded them to ban leopard hunting in the greater Lydenburg area and to reduce the number of CITES hunting permits in the Mpumalanga province by half.

I should point out that our area is significant in terms of its wild leopard population and its popularity with international trophy hunters. Without funds from responsible tourism we would not be able to undertake our work, so it is nice to be able to report some success at last.

We operate On Track Safaris with the aim of raising funds for the wildlife conservation and social programs. In particular we are home to and managers of the Ingwe Leopard Project in South Africa. The Ingwe Leopard Projects main aim is to gather reliable scientific data on the density and behaviour of leopards outside of formally protected areas. An American hunter killed Warrior on a farm outside Lydenburg, South Africa. It is incredible to think that 150 such killings will be carried out by international hunters in South Africa alone this year. All with the blessing of CITES. Why 150? Well that’s the million-dollar question. The ‘inconvenient truth’ is that there is no reliable data to estimate leopard numbers. 150 is an unsubstantiated figure aimed at appeasing the hunting lobby, rather than being based on fact. But that’s where we come in. Ingwe Leopard Project research aims to provide evidence on the density and behaviour of leopards in non-protected areas. Let us determine the facts before it’s too late.

In all we do it is important to us that our guests (80% of which come from RT), are involved in our conservation work if they wish. I say if they wish, but as you might expect everyone wants to be involved. Assisting with leopards, other wildlife conservation as well as the local school. We add these events to their safari at no extra cost and hope that they will learn more and feel strongly enough about conservation to assist us once they return home. Most do. We have RT guests running our schools forum, generating sponsorship, providing direct funding for the school and Ingwe leopard Project and a lot more. In this was tourism is benefiting both conservation and the local community, which is exactly why we founded the business.

We have installed a live video broadcast from a wild dog den with newborn puppies. Quite a technical and environmental achievement and one that we are happy to share with the world www.researchcam.com. Of course we are also gathering some previously unseen behavioural data on these endangered animals.

Another picture of some of our team working with the local farm school we sponsor. We managed to get them an IT centre and have created a worldwide schools network such as these underprivileged kids can make contact with other school kids across the world to discuss conservation. 
 
RT safari guests also managed to get sponsorship for soccer kit from Middlesbrough Football club, which was shipped free by Virgin Atlantic and is now used not only for the soccer team but also for athletics and lots more.

For more details of the work that On Track Safaris do, check out their social network on their website here.

Note: Leopards are currently classified as LC or Least Concern on the Red List of threatened species. The ICUN go on to say that Leopards are declining in large parts of their range due to habitat loss and fragmentation, and hunting for trade and pest control.

These threats may be significant enough that the species could soon qualify for Vulnerable under criterion A4 (30% decline over a period of 30 years = three generations, including both past and future). From our research so far, we can determine that the leopard population in our research areas is in decline, which in is very worrying.

Hunting records alone identify a fall off in the size of trophies across Africa since the 1960’s. I know many hunters and hunting organisations that are reasonable and sensible people. However abhorrent it may be to others, their desire to hunt leopards is currently legal, but surely it is in their interest to establish reliable data to prove they are not wiping out the leopard population. Hunters claim the decline in the leopard population is rubbish. But what do they base this on? The advice of Professional Hunters and outfitters whose lively hood depends on hunting, or on unbiased scientific fact. My challenge to the hunting lobby is this. Let us prove you right. Support the Ingwe Leopard Project. After all, we will only prove that Leopards are not in decline and hunting can continue. Wouldn’t we?

Will, On Track Safaris