Leopard-hunting packages being sold for huge sums

Holidays to shoot endangered leopards are being sold online for up to £116,000, The Independent can reveal - while a longpromised UK ban on trophy hunt imports remains stalled.

- JANE DALTON

Biggame tour companies are openly promoting online holiday packages or auctions to win the rights to kill the animals in Africa, whose numbers are in decline across the continent.

Some companies, which have dozens of hunting trips on sale, offer "extras" to wealthy hunters, including the chance to shoot elephants, lions and cheetahs. One website has a points system, under which gunmen may be awarded silver, gold, platinum or diamond membership as they notch up rewards for hunting more animals and rarer species.

A new report by the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting reveals the "disturbing" tactics used, such as baiting leopards with live animals or starting fires deliberately to flush the big cats out of hiding. In one case, a filmmaker recalled seeing a live duiker - or antelope being tied by wire to a tree to lure a leopard, which was then shot illegally at night, the International Leopard Report says. It was not known who was responsible.

The report also reveals statistics showing that 709 leopard trophies skins, skulls, bones and full bodies - were exported from Africa in 2023. Four of those mementoes were brought into the UK. Governments have repeatedly promised to ban imports of hunting trophies to discourage Britons from overseas shooting safaris.