Baviaanskloof leopards at risk.(News)

BYLINE: Staff Writer

THE death at the weekend of the 20th leopard in four years in the Baviaanskloof is putting the big cats' sustainability under "tremendous threat" in that area of the Eastern Cape.

The adult female leopard was struck by a car on the road near Zaaimanshoek within the Baviaanskloof. It appeared to have been an accidental killing.

The director of the conservationist Landmark Foundation, Bool Smuts, said that what was of most concern was the fact that, within a radius of some 25km, six leopards had been removed from the area within the past 12 months - two rescued from traps and four had been killed.

"This take-off of the …