So you heard about my new girlfriend, Felicity. Being involved in recovering her from the cage and releasing her back into the wild was on of the most heart-warming and humbling experiences that I have ever had in my life, but that wasn’t all that happened that day. Having released Felicity and made sure that everything was sorted, we were absolutely ravenous, so we stopped over at a restaurant in Willowmore for a bite to eat. Moments later, we received a call that another leopard had been caught; a male. This is Scarface.

Image courtesy of Landmark Foundation

He’s most probably the dominant male in the region, but unfortunately his story is harsher than that of Felicity’s. He weighs 38kg and had been stuck in the cage for four days. Don’t be too alarmed by the scars on his face – they are largely superficial, although the hair in those areas will never grow back. Understand that these are wild animals, and when you put them in a cage they become obsessed with getting out. The only way that they are able to try and escape is to use their head to try  and push their way out – and this is what happens after four days of attempting to break free. One of the biggest dangers to a leopard that is trapped like this is the damage to their claws and teeth as they bite and claw at the metal cage.

Image courtesy of Landmark Foundation

Another danger is dehydration. Leopards will not drink water when they are trapped and when you consider that Scarface had been in the cage for four days, dehydration is a very real threat to his survival. We put him on a drip and did the relevant measurements and data capturing before collaring him as well – his teeth were 4cm long! We did everything that we could for him, placed him in a safe spot and then began the waiting game – he took a while, but eventually came around at about 02:00am. It was a very long and unexpected day and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I hope that scarface will go on to recover and live a long trap-free life, but there’s no guarantee to that unless we change the way that we consider conservation and livestock protection. It’s sad, but it’s the reality of the situation unfortunately. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him, so watch this space for all the updates.

Images courtesy of Landmark Foundation

Don’t tell my wife, but I’ve fallen in love again. This is my new girlfriend and her name is Felicity.

I was woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning (14th of September 2014) by a call from Dr Bool Smuts telling me that a leopard had been captured on a farm in Baviaanskloof. For those of you who don’t know, I’m working on a new project called Leopard – it’s a working title for now as it’s a my latest project – and I asked Bool to put me on his list of people to call if he hears about a leopard capture so that I can start putting the project together. Unfortunately in terms of logistics, there’s no way to plan the series of events that will ultimately form the content for my new project, so it was a bit of a frenzy, but I got in my car and raced to meet up with Bool and his team from the Landmark Foundation. We flew up to Oudtshoorn to make it to the farm where the Leopard was caught. She was wild in the cage and had to be sedated so that we could help her. 

Image courtesy of Landmark Foundation

“In the 30 seconds it took to retrieve her from the cage, I truly became a conservationist.”

Images courtesy of Landmark Foundation

I’ve always thought of myself as a conservationist, but maybe you actually need an experience like this to really become one. Holding this beautiful creature in my arms changed my idea of what it means to be a conservationist. She weighs 27kg and is in the prime of her life, having already given birth to a litter of cubs. She was treated, all the necessary measurements and data was recorded and we fitted her with a GPS tracking collar so that the team can learn more about these elusive creatures’ movements and behaviors.

Once everything was sorted, we took to a shaded area under a tree and gave her the antidote to the tranquilizer. Then it’s a matter of waiting for her to come around and make sure she gets off safely. The entire process was finished by 2 o’ clock in the afternoon. It feels a bit strange posing with her like this. It’s like the typical trophy hunter photograph, but it feels so good to do something good – hence the smiles on our faces – and I’m so proud that we’re posing with cameras and not guns, having given her a new chance at life rather than taking it from her.

Image courtesy of Landmark Foundation

I’ve been waiting for this moment for such a long time to get the ball rolling on this new project of mine and now it’s finally happened. I look forward to doing it again and keeping you all in the loop with all the developments and updates regarding my new girlfriend, so watch this space because there’s no stopping now. Ah…young love.

 …and so my leopard project begins…