http://mg.co.za/article/2012-0...ttack#comment_thread


Wildlife expert mauled in leopard attack

17 Sep 2012 09:30 - Sapa

A wildlife expert employed by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency is recovering in the Nelspruit Mediclinic after being savaged by a leopard.


Beeld newspaper reported that Gerrie Camacho was at the Black Leopard Camp, in the Thaba Tholo private game reserve, on Saturday with a group of animal experts and documentary maker Dairen Simpson, who was filming for National Geographic.

They had trapped a female leopard and were trying to sedate it and fit it with a tracking collar.

Moments before a vet could fire an anaesthetic dart, the leopard jumped up and ran at Simpson, clawing his stomach and face. It ran into the bush when a warning shot was fired.

Camacho was taken to hospital but returned later with his colleague Brandon Mandy.

They walked into the bush to see if the leopard had been wounded, and it jumped out at him.

"It was like fighting with a liquidiser ... sharp everywhere, and you don't know how to defend yourself," Camacho said.

The animal shook him and bit his face, arms and legs. It fled into the bush when Mandy beat it with a tree branch.

The leopard's carcass was found later in the bush. – Sapa

I wonder if it was the warning shot or the tree branch beating that caused the leopard's demise?

I watched a show with simpson about man eating Lions in Tanzania, I thought he was pretty good. Tracker and trapper. Sounds like someone screwed the pooch

WTF???

This is incredibly badly written or the story is very confused or there's a great deal of CYA going on.

First Simpson gets clawed and a warning shot is fired.

Then Camacho goes to hospital.

Then Camacho returns and is is attacked and his friend beats it off with a stick and then the leopard is dead.

I doubt the whole story is there.

But then I don't believe newspapers much.

They should have called Karl.

this has got to be one the worst jobs of factually reporting ANYTHING i have ever seen. if it was in a trap, how did it attack the fool? if a warning shot only was fired, what killed the leopard? if he had been mauled, how did he get back in action so fast and why was the leopard still hanging around to maul him again??? i realize this is Africa but the stupidity level shown here boggles the mind.

Now he is a properly tagged and marked "wildlife expert."

A sad day for the Leopard.

Hi Guys.

Im going to get some flack for posting but what da hell.

They trap leopard in a wire when they arrived with the vet to sedate it the leopard braked loose and attack simpson who shot it in the hindleg.They took him to hospital then mister camacho arrived with shotgun and 2 bullets they followed up and the leopard charge again the gun mis fired and it attack mr camacho where upon brandon(a young guy without experience) took a branch and beat it off mr camacho where it run of mr camacho reload the the gun and when it return he shot it in the chess and it run off again where mistr camacho left for the hospital and the follow up guys found the dead leopard.

Hope this clarified everything ikf you want any more pm me please.

Luan

quote:

Originally posted by luan:
Hi Guys.

Im going to get some flack for posting but what da hell.

They trap leopard in a wire when they arrived with the vet to sedate it the leopard braked loose and attack simpson who shot it in the hindleg.They took him to hospital then mister camacho arrived with shotgun and 2 bullets they followed up and the leopard charge again the gun mis fired and it attack mr camacho where upon brandon(a young guy without experience) took a branch and beat it off mr camacho where it run of mr camacho reload the the gun and when it return he shot it in the chess and it run off again where mistr camacho left for the hospital and the follow up guys found the dead leopard.

Hope this clarified everything ikf you want any more pm me please.

Luan

Thanks Boet.

The story as written made no sense whatsoever. You've cleared it up a bit.

Good thing that these guys were experts!

Imagine how much worse this cold have gone if they were merely ignorant amateurs.

Well, to go and sort him out with 2 shotgun shells doesn't sound very professional of Mr. Camacho either.

All this could have been prevented with a modern leg-hold snare that doesn't harm the animal. Although, a south Texas mountain lion researcher that was checking on just such a snare and found it and the ground driven stake that it had been attached to were missing. He follows the drag mark till suddenly he was confronted by a mad cat but luckily the connecting chain was caught up in some brush so the cat couldn't get to him.