Pretoria - South African National Parks (SANParks) has exonerated a tourist guide of any fault following a highly unusual incident in which a leopard attacked the guide on an open safari vehicle in the Kruger National Park earlier this month.
Managing executive of the reserve Glenn Phillips said the guide, Curtis Plumb, was not to blame for the incident.
Speaking at a media briefing, Phillips said the general manager of strategic tourism services at SANParks Joep Stevens conducted a thorough investigation to determine the facts around the unusual behaviour shown by the leopard that day.
“It is very sad that this incident took place in the presence of guests and that the leopard had to be euthanased.
“Leopard sightings are most special in the park – no one wants to see this happen.”
Since the attack, social media has been abuzz about the incident.
As a result there had been a public outcry after the animal was put down, with some saying the guide was to blame for the incident.
It is believed the tour guide was with about six to eight tourists in his vehicle and they had been watching the leopard for some time.
The leopard sneaked around to the driver’s side, leapt and grabbed his arm, trying to jump into the vehicle. After a struggle which lasted about five minutes the leopard had to be euthanased.
Stevens said investigations on the leopard pointed to the animal being in a very poor condition and that the unusual behaviour was possibly as a result of gradual habituation due to feeding. “This and other related circumstances which led to a decision to euthanase the animal were confirmed by a post-mortem administered by the Skukuza state veterinarian.”
The results of the post-mortem revealed that the animal’s teeth were in poor condition, he said, its stomach was empty, it had a swollen gall bladder, was burdened by parasites (both internally and externally), had abnormally worn paw pads and was infected with tuberculosis.
Stevens also revealed that apart from the post-mortem, the investigation also focused on a number of aspects including allegations, mostly on social media platforms, of harassment or “boxing in” of the leopard by the tourist guide. “This aspect received specific focus during the investigation with consideration given to eyewitness accounts as well as graphic sketches from the guide and visual or video evidence.
“It has to be said that on closer inspection, it was evident that the animal was in no way ‘boxed-in’ or harassed in its free movement as alleged in some of the social media comments. The investigation has therefore absolved the tourist guide from any wrongdoing.”
Pretoria News