Dr. Richard Wright has hunted the U.S. extensively, but Africa was an unfulfilled passion until this summer. His 12-day hunt was in July, and in his words it was "magnificent."

Author: Frank Ross

Dr. Richard Wright poses with his leopard.

"This was my first trip to Africa, but it's not going to be my last. My first impression of Africa was that the land was so similar to many parts of the U.S. The region that I went to was like taking a trip back in time. I really enjoyed the people of Zimbabwe. That aspect of the trip was absolutely wonderful.

The only down side to the people I met there was my tracker. AIDS is devastating that continent, and here was a man with such amazing skills, and he is dying. As a doctor, that was a bittersweet relationship," he said.

"I have a lot of experience hunting large game in the states, where you hunt for days just for the chance at one animal. I'd never had the opportunity to hunt big game where there were so many animals, and so many of such quality."

"The number one animal that I was seeking was the sable, and Cy (Angelloz) told me there might be a possibility that I could take a leopard. I got a sable that I'm very pleased with, but the leopard I took was exceptional and quite an interesting story," he said.

Wright was the first hunter of the year on a special 44-thousand-acre ranch where they still had not filled their leopard quota. Naturally, when he found out that some very large tracks had been located nearby, he moved the leopard up on his list of priorities and set out the first night for what he expected would be a long wait. Normally, a leopard hunt is very spotty, no pun intended, and a hunter can spend numerous nights in a tree just to get the opportunity to see one. For that reason, hunters going to Africa are cautioned about the difficulty of leopard hunting and encouraged to take the other animals they want first.

The leopard that they were hoping for was a very large and elusive cat, having bested the efforts of nine previous hunters. His tracks were first spotted in the area during the rainy season of 1997. He was hunted 4 times in 1998 and 5 more times in 1999. Dr. Wright was the 10th hunter, and the cat's nine lives were used up last year.

Leopards prowl at night, making the hunt more difficult and dangerous.

"It was real dark when he came in. We had placed the bait in a tree by the side of a road that he had been traveling. I had shot a trophy zebra that day, and we used one of the hindquarters for bait. I had only been in the tree for about two hours when he came down the road. He passed the bait, and either saw or smelled the bait, and came back. He reached up, tore a large chunk of the meat off, and began to work on it. He was facing away from me. It was a 70-yard quartering shot that was pretty straightforward," he explained.

"I took a .375 H&H with a 1.5 X 6 Swarovski and used it for all the game I took, but on this shot, the A-square lion loads I was using didn't open up. It just went right through. When I hit him he didn't growl or spin. He just ran up into a rocky area. "The entry and exit wound was small, and tissue had closed up the wound so there was no blood trail to follow, and we only found a few small drops of blood. We searched a little for him that night, but with no luck. I spent a very long and sleepless night thinking about that shot. I didn't think there was any way I could have missed him. I'd practiced that shot at least 800 times before I went down there," he said.

The following morning, with a certain degree of trepidation, Wright returned with his PH (professional hunter) and tracker to resume the search. Not knowing if they would be confronted by a wounded leopard, they moved into the rocks very cautiously. After a brief search, they found him lying in the grass not far from where he had ran the night before. Based on the big cat's state of rigamortis, Dr. Wright estimated that he had been dead for several hours. "I was very relieved to find him," he said.

In addition to a record-book sable, the doctor took a beautiful eland, wildebeest, kudu, zebra and warthog. "The kudu is very nice, but at 51-inches it won't make the record books, but I'm very pleased with it.

With his hunting finished early, Dr. Wright traveled back to Bulawayo and took in some sightseeing and bird hunting. "I was fortunate to see some rhino in the Matopos park. It's a huge park with smooth granite rocks and beautiful scenery. Matopos is also the burial site for Cecil Rhodes who colonized this region of Africa, and claimed it for the Queen of England. Originally this country was called Rhodesia," he noted.

"I was aware of the political unrest in Zimbabwe, but wasn't concerned. I had contacted Cy, whom I have known for some time. I trust him. He explained the situation to me and made it clear that there wasn't anything to be concerned about. He said that he was monitoring it on a regular basis, and if there were any need for me to worry he would call and tell me to worry. He didn't call, and I didn't worry," he said.

"All of the hunters in the region were moved up to the Plumtree region, which is only about 45 minutes by Jeep to the border of Botswana. While there wasn't any serious concerns, they kept in radio contact with the capital, and if there had been any problems we could have been out of the country in an hour," he said.

According to Angelloz, Cabela's Outdoor Adventures African consultant, there are two main tribes in Zimbabwe, the Matabele and Shona. These two tribes are basically the Democrats and Republicans of this nation. They've been fighting for control since time began, and they will continue to do so for as long as they live. The one thing for hunters to keep in mind is that the leaders of these two tribes both realize that hunting is a valuable source of income to their country. The leaders of these tribe do not want to jeopardize this revenue. Just like parts of this country, there are areas where you don't want to be after dark, but if you book a trip with a quality hunter he's not going to let that happen," Angelloz said.

The positive aspect of those factors made for a fortuitous situation for the doctor. Normally, in this region there would have been hunters since April; however, in July he was the first hunter to enter the region. "I think the leopard thought there weren't going to be any hunters this year. Before, he seemed to have a sense of when hunters were in the area and would not come to the bait, but when we put our bait out he came right to it," he said.

A wary warthog takes a drink.

Warthogs might be ugly, but they're surpassingly delicious to eat according to Dr. Wright. "The kudu, eland and warthog were wonderful. They prepared a shoulder roast of the warthog with vegetables and onions and it was very lean and tasty, much like our pork. The eland was amazing. It's texture was much the same as Nebraska or Iowa beef. The eland was especially tasty, prepared in filets and seared on an open fire," he said. One word of advice the doctor shared is to prepare well. "I planned my trip 14 months ago and worked very hard to get in shape. We walked about 100 miles during my 12-day hunt, and traveled about 500 by 4-wheel drive vehicles. You've got to be in shape for this trip, and when you make a shot in Africa you've got to be confident of where the bullet will hit. My shots varied from as close as 30 yards up to 140 yards, and I practiced for months before going," he said.

Based upon the doctor's collection of trophies, I'd say he was right on target.

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