Excellent article, as always. However, I am curious about one of his closing paragraphs. He states that the leopard is the most widespread dangerous game in Africa. This caught me by surprise. Any comments?

He said it because it is true...they are like coyotes and have adapted to live through out Africa in both naturally wild settings and close to humans even in urban settings.

That's amazing. I had no idea.

Thanks for the kinds words! The numbers game is very hard to play with most African species...the data just isn't there. Even continent-wide estimates on elephants vary widely. I've seen the number of leopards estimated at two million, but Africa is a big place and leopards are awfully hard to count, so who knows for sure? I am certain leopards are more widespread than buffalo; they occur in varying densities throughout Namibia, South Africa, and Ethiopia, including the vast areas that have no buffalo...and I tend to believe there are still at least a few leopards both north and west of the northernmost and westernmost buffalo populations. One thing our Spotted Cat Act and the CITES treaty did do is pretty much kill the trade in leopard skins, which was mostly trapping (when is the last time anybody saw a real leopard coat?). Primarily because of habitat loss, there are a lot fewer buffalo today than when I started hunting in Africa--but there are a lot more leopards now than there were 30 years ago. Even so, I believe buffalo outnumber leopards continent-wide. It would be nice if we really knew the numbers, but I doubt we ever will.

In addtion to almost all of Africa, almost all of Asia is thick with them as well.

I would add that the leopard is the widest distributed large cat in the world, and far wider than Cape buffalo.

By the way that was an excellent article.

I enjoyed the article as well. The entire edition was very good reading. I have to say Sports Afield has become my favorite.

John

Thanks for the information. Case in point, the article questioning whether the hippo is the most dangerous/deadly animal in Africa. Data is hard to come by, especially in Africa.

I agree, the entire issue has been a good one. I winced reading about the .600 OK.

I do love AR. I posted a question about a magazine article and the author responds.

Great job Craig! I always look forward to reading your stuff!