MANY years ago, my wife Win and I lived on Nampini, a beautiful 25 000 hectare ranch on the Zambezi River near Botswana. We had some cattle on the ranch, but the unfortunate animals were continuously being attacked and killed by lion and leopard. The area was populated with big and small game, including plenty of these predators, so it was a losing battle trying to protect the cattle. Lion were the chief culprits, but leopard certainly made their mark as well. The thick bush and reed-banks were ideal leopard habitat. They were exceptionally large specimens, and the biggest leopard I shot there weighed over 100kg. Apart from the lions, leopard would quite often take calves and sometimes even young animals up to eighteen months old.
One specific calf-killing big male leopard never returned to his kills after feeding; he was obviously smart and cautious! I tried sitting in blinds and setting traps, but it
