Already, Jensen says four of his clients have gone out for leopard, with three of the hunters not locating any. The fourth client, Anders Holm of Denmark, took a 183-pound (83-kilo) male leopard. (See photo in the Trophy Gallery section of our web site.) Jensen says leopards are the target of poisoning by livestock owners in Uganda, but he hopes that an income from leopard hunting will change the attitudes of the local populations.
As for the delay in obtaining CITES permits for these cats last year, Jensen says that UWA has cleared the snags and acquired the necessary CITES permits for two leopards taken by his clients last season. He expects the trophies to arrive at the taxidermist in South Africa any day. Unfortunately, he says the trophy fee on leopards took a jump this season from $3,500 to $5,000. Of course, Ugandan leopards are not currently importable into the United States, although John J. Jackson, III, of Conservation Force has said he would help any American hunter who would like to try importing one.
Besides the leopards, Jensen says he has had 13 buffalo hunters in the field successfully take bulls and two others hunting a variety of plains game. You can see the quality trophies Matama is producing on his concession at Lake Mburo by visiting Jensen's web site (www.jensensafaris.com). Just be aware that his site is written in Danish only.
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