Leopard hunting for Americans is coming to a screeching halt. First, let me clarify this is with respect to American's (not other nationalities); and applies to whether your trophy can be exported back to the US. Most of us can agree if the trophy can't be imported, it's moot whether it is still legal to hunt them or not. For our purposes: no legal importation equals not legal - right?
Fish & Wildlife say "they are under consideration", is merely going through the legal formalities - we all know how this will end. I suspect everyone with a pending importation permits will mysteriously see the paperwork lost or glacially slowed down.
The US Fish & Wildlife Service has issued a notice of "Substantial Findings" that the Leopard should be included under the US Endangered Species Act. In this humble writers opinion, leopards are about as common as coyotes in Africa, and evidencing the most backwards thinking this author has ever encountered. For goodness sakes leopards are showing up in towns. This initial finding is for a 90-day submission period. People will say "nothing has been decided yet", unfortunately people say anything.
To my knowledge the US Fish & Wildlife has not yet found a game species I am aware of not "endangered" and hunting restricted. If you have leopard skins in Africa EXPEDITE their shipment home.
If you have a leopard hunt on the books for 2017 or beyond, then you need to carefully specify with your outfitter in your contract what will happen if the hides becomes importable.
I hope I am wrong, but I think our chances of winning this are nil - the decision certainly isn't based on the science. Why don't you ask the Africans about their opinions on leopards?
See Federal Register below:
