A TRAP FOR A LEOPARD

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1932, Page 16

A TRAP FOR A LEOPARD

(By an Elf in Africa.)

,"A leopard killed one of our calves last month. It came to th'o kraal during the night and somehow made a hole large enough to get at the calf. Next day the boys set a trap with Hugh's gun, and baited it with part of the dead -calf, because they knew | the leopard would be back to eat its j 'kill.' About 2 o'clock in the morning they heard the gun go off; but Hugh waited until daybreak before lie went to investigate. When he did go, however, he was disgusted to find nothing. The leopard's footprints were right up to the door of the trap, but there was no blood, so it was obvious that the leopard had got off scot free. "The trap was a real Heath Kobinson arrangement—a box upside down I with the bait inside if,, and wires and strings around a hole cut iv the side of the box. The gun pointed directly nt the opening, and should have shot the leopard in the head as soon as it touched the wires. But evidently he' put only his paw in the opening, and the gun missed. The trap was set again next night, but the leopard was more -wary, ire walked round and round the trap, but didn't attempt to get inside. The next, night he ilidn't come down at all, but we heard him up the hill behind the house." "LUCY." Jsjraaaland, East Africa.