A tragic story to read and share worldwide – as this is the reality of the (African) wild leopards in South Africa and how interested people & projects are to try and save this species, like all others, and how is being messed with us, who truly wants to do what’s in our power for the leopards and wild cats. It is very, very tragic and it makes us very sad. By a “befriended” wildcatfarm in SA a few days ago we received this photo of a captured wild female leopard and the
following message “Wild adult female Leopard for sale captured near
the Botswana border. Still in small cage captive. R50 000.00” Your
first thought is to buy and rescue this poor cat right away, but of
course you can’t. You are with your back to the wall, because: this wild leopard is being sold by a farmer, who wants money for the (as he claims) loss to live stock (almost 5.000 euro???). First of all it is illegal to capture and sell wild animals, there are no permits, and buying this leopard would encourage this farmer and all other loosers to capture more wild leopards and make easy money on it. Asking the “leopardman” of SA for help didn’t get us any further. So far we
haven’t got any details from the people capturing and selling the leopard, and the people protecting this kind of deals. Of course, as
people are not to be trusted, we don’t even know for sure if it is about a wild leopard to start with…..No reply from Nature Conservation just yet and no help….but if they take matters in their own hand, it could be a big worry too. Often they give permits to the farmers to shoot the leopards or other animals. So not much help here either. Meanwhile the female is in a very small  cage…waiting for her fate…..being sold (to the wrong people) or being killed? And it is not just about this leopard…..this is the faith of the whole species. Welcome to conservation, welcome to South Africa, welcome to the world where people rule….with no interest in saving “lousy wild” animals to start with. The “farmer” would keep the leopard for 2 days…which will pass today…..and then what?? Any suggestions people????

On this picture you see the 2 new Wild Cats World leopard ambassadors: Felicia and brother Floris. Felicia will have our Felix as future partner and for Floris we have found a great home at a new association in our huge leopardproject. More info about the progress in our Conservation Project and the association with new partners in this, will follow shortly. Felicia and Floris are 3 weeks young, born in February 2013. The first ambassador Feline & Felix turned 18 months old and Feline’s future partner Félipe is 6 months now. In April Félipe will be moved permanently to our Spotted Cats Conservation Project in the Eastern Cape, S.A. and he will be introduced in time to Feline and if all goes well to Felix. If they get on well they can use two huge enclosures for the time being until Felicia arrives and they all reach the age of sexual maturity.

Three of the many leopards starring in the book “Wild Cats, Leopard Fascination” are helping Babette to get even more sales than we already did for this first book in the “Wild Cats” series. No doubt their presence can convince you more than anything to buy the book and contribute to the essential leopard conservation.