Huntinamibia 2020 English

1999-2020 SCIENTIFIC PROOF FOR

LEOPARD QUOTAS

GEMSBOK HUNT ON THE EDGE OF THE NAMIB GLISTENING HORN OF AN

ELAND

THE 100-POUNDER IN CAPRIVI

We would like to thank all our clients, professional hunters, outfitters and friends for their continued support over the past year. We look forward to the 2018 season in bringing quality and service to the hunting industry in Namibia. Happy Hunting!

Wir bedanken uns herzlich bei unseren Kunden, Berufjägern, Jagdanbietern und Freunden für die wunderbare Unterstützung im Letzten Jahr. Wir freuen uns darauf, in dem nächsten Jahr weiterhin der Jagd in Namibia mit Qualität und gutem Service beistehen zu dürfen. Waidmanns Heil!

Congratulations NAPHA with 46 dedicated years of showing the way, and Huntinamibia for spreading the hunting message for 21 years.

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MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR

Hunting for conservation

Namibia's continued success

Y

es, you are absolutely right! The photograph on the cover of this 21st edition of Huntinamibia is NOT of the 100-pounder that Koos Pienaar found for his client in Bwabwata West.

Every hunting guide and hunter will tell you that if and when you encounter such a big tusker there is no time for photographs. We tried our best to find a photograph that will do justice to the area, the age of the elephant and the tusks. PH Dirk de Bot, who is a well-known, published photographer, shared a few which we added to the story about that hunt. Dirk was in the news a few years ago when his client took an 86-pounder with Koos Pienaar in the same area, in the hunting fraternity better known as the Caprivi Strip.

What we eventually chose for the cover is a photograph by Hagen Denker, young PH and hobby photographer, who hunted buffalo in that area. This photograph of the old elephant bull, both tusks weathered and broken by a long life of use, also shows that region, and in fact the entire country, as it was at the time of production of this edition of Huntinamibia – dry and grey.

2020 is the year in which we celebrate the 30th year of Namibia’s independence. It is truly a milestone worth celebrating. Like so many countries in the world we have economic challenges, and ours are intensified by a severe drought. But on the conservation front we have made great strides.

Hunters who have had the opportunity to hunt in Namibia’s wilderness areas can testify to the role that trophy hunting plays in this success. One of which is the fact that rural people who live with wildlife benefit from the financial contribution in conservancies. We also applaud NAPHA for initiating a leopard census to provide scientific proof of the leopard numbers in Namibia.

In this issue we publish an article by Gail Potgieter of NCE, to refute the criticism directed at the research, and we provide a link to a summary of the paper. The criticism was widely distributed on social media.

Preserving wilderness and biodiversity is not only the obligation of Government in national parks and in the form of support to communities on communal land. Every commercial farmer in Namibia and especially on hunting farms plays a vital role in this challenge.

To hunt on private land where there is no alternative commercial agricultural activity possible is a valuable contribution to our GDP and to the preservation of natural landscapes.

In this edition we focused on hunting adventures on farmland – some completely unfenced, some with fences that will keep domestic animals in, but allow wildlife to move freely.

For your pleasure we put a dot on the map do indicate in which part of Namibia the hunt took place. There are so many different biomes where one can hunt the same animal. Desert, semi desert, mountainous terrain, flat, thick Kalahari sand, dense bush, open veld, hilly, rocky…

We also include an interesting story about a fight between a honey badger and a warthog. Telling the story is interesting enough, but the fact that Immo Vogel had a camera with him to record the event in pictures is exceptional and illustrates how wild the farms in Namibia are.

Huntinamibia makes an official announcement in this edition: THERE ARE NO MORE ORYX IN NAMIBIA. Only gemsbok. We are banning the O word from our vocabulary.

As Helge Denker said many years ago: Many oryx, one gemsbok The gemsbok is Namibia’s national animal, appearing in the state’s coat of arms – as well as in the logo of Namibia Parks and Wildlife, the park management division within the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Taxonomically, the gemsbok falls within the genus Oryx. A number of distinct species and subspecies of this genus are distributed across parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. These include the Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) and the beisa oryx (Oryx beisa). A subspecies of the beisa oryx, the fringe-eared oryx (O. beisa callotis) has distinct tassels fringing its ears, and is more ochre in colour. In tourism circles, partly encouraged by travellers familiar with East Africa’s beisa oryx, the name oryx has been used increasingly for the gemsbok. This is not entirely correct. There are many oryx, but there is only one gemsbok – the southern African Oryx gazella, indigenous to the drier parts of the subcontinent.

It is also with great sadness that we say goodbye to Volker Grellmann.

Every person in the hunting and tourism fraternity who accepted Volker as a mentor may have shared similar encounters as the personal tribute so poignantly told by Kai-Uwe Denker.

Volker Grellmann will be missed and his legacy treasured.

Rièth van Schalkwyk Editor

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

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CONTENTS 2020 FEATURES 14 CAPRIVI 100-POUNDER

Cover

An old elephant bull, tusks wellweathered after a lifetime of use, in the grey bush of Bwabwata West.

Photo by Hagen Denker

18 P.J. SCHOEMAN'S NAMIBIA 20 A FLASH OF HORN IN THE SUNLIGHT 24 WHAT BETTER WAY TO TEACH THE YOUNG 26 HUNTING LEOPARD ON FOOT IN THE DESERT 28 HUNTING ON THE EDGE OF THE NAMIB 32 A YOUNG MAN'S LION AT /AOTCHA PAN 34 AKIRO - THE ULTIMATE HUNTING COMPANION 36 BACK TO THE ROOTS 40 THE BIGGEST AMONG THE SMALL ONES 42 AFRICA IN THE HEART 46 AN OLD HUNTER'S DREAM

<<< www.huntnamibia.com.na Read the latest and older issues of Huntinamibia online.

Huntinamibia’s website also contains a wealth of information sourced over two decades. It is an archive of material which has appeared in the printed magazine since 1999.

READ ONLINE

49 NCE SPEAKS OUT 51 NAMIBIA RAISES THE BAR FOR BEST PRACTICES IN HUNTING 53 CIC CONFERENCE - LEADING THE WAY FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION 55 HOW MANY LEOPARDS ARE THERE IN NAMIBIA? 58 IN MEMORIAM: VOLKER GRELLMANN 60 CONSERVATIONISTS OF THE YEAR 2020 63 COMPULSORY BALLISTIC TESTING 65 NATURE AWARENESS PROJECT - LET'S SHOW OUR CHILDREN THE WONDER OF NATURE

Publisher Venture Media PO Box 21593, Windhoek, Namibia www.huntnamibia.com.na www.travelnewsnamibia.com Managing Editor Rièth van Schalkwyk rieth@venture.com.na

REGULAR FEATURES Huntinamibia

is published annually by Venture Media in collaboration with the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) and with the support of the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Administration Bonn Nortje bonn@venture.com.na Design & Layout Liza de Klerk design@venture.com.na Printing John Meinert Printers (Pty) Ltd

3 EDITORIAL 7 MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER 9 MESSAGE FROM THE NAPHA PRESIDENT 10 HUNTING CONCESSIONS IN CONSERVANCIES HELD

BY NAPHA MEMBERS 13 GAME SPECIES Indigenous species and their natural distribution in Namibia

NAPHA INFORMATION Editorial material and opinions expressed in Huntinamibia do not necessarily reflect the views of Venture Media and we do not accept responsibility for the advertising content.

67 NAPHA REGISTER Hunting professionals registered with the Namibian Professional Hunting Association

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MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER

BAN ON IMPORT OF TROPHIES WILL ERODE PROGRESS We thank the international hunting fraternity and the local trophy hunting sector for their support and efforts to ensure that our country’s conservation success benefits the entire country and its people.

N

amibia has adopted a number of innovative strategies to achieve biodiversity conservation within the framework of national development plans and poverty eradication.

One of the strategies is the Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Programme, which allows for the formation of communal conservancies through which rural communities have gained rights over management of wildlife and tourism. The CBNRM programme provides a number of incentives to rural communities who are managing these natural resources and generate income from the sustainable utilisation of wildlife and tourism management.

The Namibian conservation model, which has received international acclaim, is based on the premise that people living with wildlife are the rightful custodians. Our legislation and policies thus provide for rural communities and private landowners to manage their wildlife populations sustainably and derive financial and other benefits from these natural resources. This system is supported by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, which is committed to conserving wildlife and natural habitat for current and future generations.

Our policy of devolving conditional wildlife ownership rights to our people has produced excellent results for wildlife conservation and rural sustainable development. Populations of elephants, lions and black rhinoceros have increased in numbers and expanded their range into areas where they were formerly eradicated. Today, more of our wildlife population occurs on private and communal lands and we have more wildlife now than at any time in the last 100 years, having reversed losses suffered during the colonial and apartheid era.

Wildlife ownership on private farmlands has encouraged the recovery and growth of numerous species. Collectively, they host about 82% of Namibia’s wildlife population, generate £13.6 million in annual hunting revenue (data from 2016) and employ over 6,000 people in rural areas. They also contribute to food security, as over 95% of the venison produced on these lands remains in Namibia. The economic contribution of the wildlife sector has overtaken livestock production and is an important part of our future adaptation to climate change in our semi-arid country.

The economic competitiveness of wildlife-based land use has driven Namibia’s “rewilding” success, with huge gains for wildlife, biodiversity conservation, job creation and the national economy.

Conservation hunting is therefore an important part of our integrated sustainable development and conservation strategy. The most economically valuable and least extractive form of hunting is selective high-value hunting whereby an international client pays a premium to hunt individual older animals. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism closely regulates this practice, through registering trained local Professional Hunters who accompany each client and issuing permits based on quotas set by using reliable information and scientific studies.

Without hunting, large parts of our land would be less productive.

Hunting lessens the gravity of the ecological and socio-economic impacts of climate change. To lose hunting would have a significant impact on conservation and would detract from the competitiveness of wildlife as a preferred land-use. It is in the interest of the conservation fraternity, in its broadest context, that the hunting sector in Namibia is successful, that it is practiced to the highest levels of professionalism, and that it can be defended against uninformed opinion. Any ban on the import of hunting trophies threatens to erode all the progress made in our country since independence.

We commend the efforts of the private sector, specifically the Namibia Professional Hunting Association and the Namibia Chamber of Environment, for taking the initiative to provide the evidence upon which our policies are based and decisions on which quotas are taken.

The Best Practice Guide for Trophy Hunting and the leopard census are such examples. There is no place in the Namibian hunting sector for unethical hunting practices. It damages our reputation and plays into the hands of the anti-hunting lobby.

At the International Council for Game and Wildlife (CIC) we told 200 delegates that poaching and corruption undermine our conservation efforts and we will all join hands to put a stop to it.

Our conservation model has worked and continues to work for our country, with wildlife populations significantly increasing over the years, owing to the value that local communities derive from that.

It is our wish that every hunter who visits Namibia will be inspired to be an ambassador for hunting in Namibia.

N. Pohamba Shifeta Namibian Minister of Environment and Tourism

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF NAPHA

DETERMINATION AND HOPE for the future of conservation hunting

T

he year 2019 was marked by more environmental issues than I have consciously witnessed ever before, and all of them while the drought in Namibia lingered heavily on our minds.

Sixteen-year-old activist Greta Thunberg has campaigned fiercely for urgent action against climate change and habitat loss. She became the voice and face for what many others have cautioned against for years already: the destruction and loss of habitat on a terrific scale and the extinction of species, claiming that we are at the beginning of the sixth mass extinction.

While many have denounced all of this as nonsense, no-one can dispute the fact that habitats are being threatened at an escalating pace. And with that comes the extinction of species. According to Professor Francois Durand from the University of Johannesburg, if rhino would become extinct, another 60 species and organisms that depend on rhino would also disappear. Scientists claim that species are going extinct at a rate of about 200 per day.

Suddenly the youth is inspired, and the world is listening.

But here in Namibia we are still reprimanded as hunters – the evil killers and murderers.

The human race doesn’t see itself as a species, as part of nature, and doesn’t want to acknowledge that life culminates in death, that it always ends with death – even human life.

“How can you kill something that you say you care for and love?” These are the questions we have to face. A cattle or sheep farmer is never asked this question.

I answer: “I kill the animal because I survive on it – and I care for it because I cannot do without it. It is part of my existence.

And I love it because it gives me beauty, a sense of realness and a life well-lived, full of adventure, experiences and stories around a campfire.” Because I realised that there is something ecstatic in hunting. Not bloodlust, as certain people want to see it, but a powerful connection you feel with life as a whole. And because when you shoot, that feeling doesn’t dissipate with the sound of the shot. It lingers.

It permeates your limbs and sharpens your senses – adding a degree of self-possession to

your being, or a being to your self-possession.

It gives shape to the open air, it reveals the hidden architecture that was there all along – the vault of the invisible cathedral over the veld – known to owls and antelope but not discernible by the human eye.

Anyone can buy a car or pay for a night on the town. Most of us shell our days like peanuts. But one in a thousand can look at the world with amazement. I don’t mean staring at the Eiffel Tower. I’m talking about the wing of a dragonfly. The yellow glint of an eye, the rhythm of a kudu. Of walking for an undisturbed hour with an unsullied heart. And because I love my children, and I don’t want them to live their life with a mask on. And because Nature heals us, as only Nature can.

But nevertheless hunters are seen as pariahs, as outcasts. Hunting as a business where one gets pulled down into a black hole further and further.

During CITES CoP18 in Geneva, after I realised with shock that science is falsifiable while conspiracy theories are not, and that our proven conservation efforts are being punished rather than rewarded, I was told that I was being emotional about it. Normally I would have a problem with a man telling me that I was emotional at work, but after what happened in Geneva, after thinking that I was going home without hope for the future of my children, he was damn right, I am emotional.

Maybe emotion is what’s missing from the stupid so-called logic behind our dehumanised conservation... This is not a rational, deliberate process. It’s the rogue enactment of a prepared script that forces leaders to make decisions under excruciating pressure, decisions that determine the fate of the planet and mankind... if we don’t do everything in our power to fix that, to reduce the odds of this ever happening again, then aren’t we all complicit in a recklessness that borders on immorality?

determination to engage with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.

We are getting tired of ducking bullets and being stripped of our identity – to conform with society and to be politically correct. It is the burden of hiding the truth that tugs at a person’s soul or irrevocably alters a person’s life.

And until we can speak our truth and have another human being not only listen to us, but BELIEVE us, we will never truly be free…

So, leave nothing to chance and believe that everything is possible. Use every opportunity that you have to engage others. Speak up. Be brave – don’t you dare shy away from who you are when someone has discovered that you hunt. Be outspoken about it. Stop hiding the fact that you hunt. Take action. Look for the action, because actions bring hope.

Educate yourself in conservation. Stop using plastic bags. Save more water. Gather science and data. Become an even more responsible citizen and get much more involved on all levels, because you are not only a hunter. You are a conservationist.

A lion is more cautious on equal footing, but even then, he won’t back down. He has no fear, you see, not as we understand it. He can only be exactly what he is, what his nature dictates him to be, and nothing else.

Hunt hard, Danene van der Westhuyzen

Some argue that consciousness is the new luxury when it comes to travel. The public is waking up and getting more conscious of their responsibilities towards nature. And this creates opportunities for us to be bold and outspoken about conservation through hunting.

Human beings are so erratic, so complex, so delightfully contradictory by their very nature, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration – and our unwavering

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

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HUNTING CONCESSIONS

IN CONSERVANCIES HELD BY NAPHA MEMBERS

- Namibia's conservation success story The sustainable use of wildlife, especially trophy hunting, has played a critical role in the development of communal conservancies. Prior to 1998, there were only four hunting concessions operating on Namibiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communal lands, with none of these concessions providing meaningful engagement with or benefits to resident communities. Today there are 46 trophy-hunting concessions operating on communal lands, with the conservancies being empowered as both the benefactor and custodian of these hunting concessions.

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Global Transport Management Hunting Concessions held by NAPHA members Communal Conservancies

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National Park

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1 - Orupembe - A. Esterhuizen 2 - Uukolonkadhi Ruacana - L. van Zyl 3 - Otjikondavirongo - L. Janse van Vuuren 4 - Sesfontein - L. Janse van Vuuren 5 - ≠Khoadi-//Hôas - G Utz 6 - Torra - Jurgen Schlettwein - pg 71 7 - !Khore !goreb - Jaco Oosthuizen - pg 62 8 - Eiseb - J Blaauw 9 - Nyae Nyae - Stefan Jacobs 10 - George Mukoya - Drikus Swanepoel 11 - Muduva Nyangana - Drikus Swanepoel 12 - Kayramcan Association - James Chapman - pg 45 12 - Kayramcan Association - Karl Stumpfe - pg 66 13 - Kwando - Jamy Traut - pg 44 14 - Mayuni - Jamy Traut - pg 44 15 - Sobbe - Karl Stumpfe - pg 66 16 - Wuparo - Dawid Muller - pg 62 17 - Dzoti - Falco Schwarz 18 - Sikunga - Jaco Oosthuizen - pg 62 19 - Tsiseb - Kai-Uwe and Hagen Denker - pg 50 20 - Nakabolelwa - Jaco Oosthuizen - pg 62 21 - Lusese - Jaco Oosthuizen - pg 62

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Status of different wildlife species in Namibia Common name

Scientific name

Cape Rock Hyrax Kaokoveld Rock Hyrax Bush Hyrax African Bush Elephant Aardvark Chacma Baboon Vervet Monkey African Wild Dog Side-striped Jackal Black-backed Jackal Bat-eared Fox Cape Fox Ratel Lion Leopard Serval Caracal Cheetah African Wildcat Black-footed Cat Brown Hyaena Spotted Hyaena Aardwolf Plains / Burchell’s Zebra Plains / Chapman’s Zebra Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra Black Rhinoceros White Rhinoceros

Procavia capensis Procavia welwitchii Heterohyrax brucei Loxodonta africana Orycteropus afer Papio ursinus Chlorocebus pygerythrus Canis pictus Canis adustus Canis mesomelas Otocyon megalotis Vulpes chama Mellivora capensis Panthera leo Panthera pardus Leptailurus serval Caracal caracal Acinonyx jubatus Felis sylvestris Felis nigripes Hyaena brunnea Crocuta crocuta Proteles cristata Equus quagga burchelli Equus quagga chapmani Equua zebra hartmanni Diceros bicornis bicornis Ceratotherium simum simum

√ √ √ √ No √ No No No √ No No No √ √ No √ √ No No x x No √ √ √ √ √

Southern African near endemic Namibian near endemic Peripheral indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Southern African near-endemic Southern African endemic Southern African endemic Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Southern African endemic Southern African endemic Indigenous Southern African near-endemic Southern African endemic Indigenous Namibian endemic Indigenous Southern African near-endemic

Conservation IUCN & CITES Secure Secure Secure Vulnerable (CITES II) Near Threatened Secure (CITES II) Secure (CITES II) Endangered Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Vulnerable (CITES II) Near Threatened (CITES I) Secure (CITES II) Secure (CITES II) Vulnerable (CITES I) Secure (CITES II) Vulnerable (CITES I) Near Threatened Secure Secure Near Threatened Endangered Vulnerable (CITES II) Vulnerable (CITES I) Near Threatened (CITES I)

Bushpig Desert / Cape Warthog

Potamochoerus larvatus Phacochoerus aethiopicus aethiopicus Phacochoerus africanus Hippopotamus amphibius Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis Syncerus caffer Tragelaphus angasi Tragelaphus strepsiceros Tragelaphus scriptus Tragelaphus spekii Taurotragus oryx Sylvicapra grimmia Raphicerus sharpei Raphicerus campestris Madoqua kirkii damarensis Antidorcas marsupialis Ourebia ourebi Pelea capreolus Redunca arundinum Kobus vardoni Kobus leche Kobus ellipsiprymnus Oreotragus oreotragus

√ No

Indigenous Southern African endemic

Secure Extinct

Distributed across central and southern Namibia Kunene region of Namibia and into SW Angola Extreme NW in Kunene River valley Historically occurred across all of Namibia except Namib sand sea Widespread across Namibia except for extreme west Widespread across Namibia except extreme west Confined to northeast and Orange River valley Historically occurred across all Namibia except for extreme west Northeast Namibia Widespread across Namibia Widespread across Namibia Widespread across Namibia except for extreme west and northeast Throughout Namibia except for extreme west Historically occurred across all of Namibia Widespread across Namibia except extreme western Namib sand sea Historically across northern and eastern Namibia Widespread across all Namibia Widespread across Namibia except for far west Throughout Namibia Across Namibia except for far west, northwest and northeast Across all Namibia Historically across Namibia except for extreme west Across Namibia except for extreme west Across Namibia except for extreme west and northeast Northeast Namibia Western escarpment and central plateau (mountainous rocky terrain) Historically across Namibia except for extreme west Historic range across Namibia above about the 250 mm rainfall isohyet Northeast Namibia Extreme southern Namibia – Orange and Fish River valleys

√ √ √

Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous

Secure Vulnerable (CITES II) Vulnerable

Widespread across Namibia except for far west and south Historically occurred in all perennial river systems in Namibia Historically widespread across all Namibia except for extreme west

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ No √ √ √ √ √

Indigenous Exotic Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Peripheral indigenous Southern African near-endemic Namibian near-endemic Southern African endemic Peripheral indigenous Peripheral indigenous Indigenous Peripheral indigenous Indigenous Indigenous Indigenous

Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Near Threatened Near Threatened (CITES II) Secure Secure

Aepyceros melampus melampus Aepyceros melampus petersi Damaliscus pygargus pygargus Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi Damaliscus lunatus Alcelaphus buselaphus caama Connochaetes taurinus Connochaetes gnou Hippotragus equinus Hippotragus niger Oryx gazella

√

Indigenous

Secure

Historically widespread except for far west and southern Kalahari Occurred naturally in northern KwaZulu-Natal and Kruger NP Lowveld Widespread across Namibia except for extreme west Northeast Namibia Reedbeds in north-eastern perennial rivers Historically throughout Namibia except for far west Throughout Namibia except in far west Extreme eastern Zambezi Region Throughout Namibia except in extreme west Central, north-central and north-western Namibia Throughout Namibia except in north-eastern woodlands Eastern Zambezi Region Huns Mountains in Namibia’s extreme south Perennial rivers in north-eastern Namibia Extreme eastern Zambezi Region – Chobe floodplains River systems in northeast Namibia River systems in northeast Namibia Hilly, rocky & mountainous areas of southern, central and northwestern Namibia Historically across central-eastern and north-eastern Namibia

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Namibian near-endemic Exotic Exotic Indigenous Southern African endemic Indigenous Exotic Indigenous Indigenous Southern African endemic

Vulnerable Vulnerable (CITES II) Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure Secure

Northwest and southwards to northern central plateau Occurred naturally only in the Western Cape coastal fynbos, RSA Occurred naturally only in South Africa’s grassland Highveld & Karoo Northeast Namibia Kalahari and thornveld savanna ecosystems in Namibia Historically widespread, except in the west & extreme south Occurred naturally only in South Africa’s grassland Highveld & Karoo North-eastern woodlands of Namibia North-eastern woodlands of Namibia Throughout Namibia, except for Zambezi region

Common Warthog Common Hippopotamus Giraffe (Angolan Giraffe) African Savanna Buffalo Nyala Greater Kudu Bushbuck Sitatunga Common Eland Common / Grey Duiker Sharpe’s Grysbok Steenbok Damara Dik-dik Springbok Oribi Rhebok Southern Reedbuck Puku Southern Lechwe Waterbuck Klipspringer Common Impala Black-faced Impala Bontebok Blesbok Tsessebe Red Hartebeest Blue Wildebeest Black Wildebeest Roan Antelope Sable Antelope Southern Oryx

Distribution status

Notes on distribution

DEFINITIONS Indigenous – where the species occurs naturally without any human intervention. This refers to the species’ actual distribution, not the countries where it occurs. For example, Waterbuck and Lechwe are indigenous to the wetland systems of NE Namibia – they are not indigenous to the whole of Namibia. Similarly, Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra are indigenous to the western escarpment and central plateau of Namibia, but not to the Kalahari.

Endemic – where an indigenous species has a naturally restricted range. Thus, a Namibian endemic means that the species occurs naturally only in Namibia. We therefore have a special responsibility for its conservation. A Southern African endemic means that the natural global distribution of a species is confined to south of the Kunene and Zambezi rivers.

Near-endemic – where about 80% of the natural range of a species is confined to the specified

area. For example, the Damara Dik-dik is a near-endemic to Namibia, with just a small part of its range extending into southwest Angola.

Exotic – where a species originates from another part of the world and has never occurred naturally in Namibia, e.g. Nyala, Blesbok, Black Wildebeest.

Peripheral – where a species just enters the very edge of Namibia, with most of its distribution occurring elsewhere, e.g. Puku, with a tiny population on the Chobe floodplains but most of its population in Zambia.

Conservation Status – IUCN global conservation assessment (see www.iucnredlist.org - not the Namibian status); and the CITES Appendix status.

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

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CAPRIVI

100-POUNDER

DIrk de Bot

This is not a photograph of the story's 100-pounder.

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It was big news in the hunting world last year when a 100-pounder was taken in what used to be called western Caprivi, now Bwabwata West, in the Zambezi Region of Namibia. The hunt was guided by Koos Pienaar. It was the first tusker of this size in Africa since 2015 when a 120-pounder was taken near Gonarezhou in Zimbabwe, and the first in Namibia since 2010 when a client of Kai Uwe Denker took a 105/102-pounder in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. In an article published in America it was noted that Namibia has never really been 100-pounder territory, which of course is off the mark. Since 1988 when Volker Grellmann started to hunt in what was then known as Bushmanland, the heaviest ivory in all of Africa, on average, came from Namibia. ANVO took, amongst others, four 90-pounders. In 1999 Kai Uwe Denker guided a client to a 101/93 tusker in the West of Khaudum Concession and in 2004 to an exceptional 115/17-pounder in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy. Rièth van Schalkwyk

T

he 2019 trophy is great news for Namibia not only because of its size in an area which is considered not to host such big old elephant, but also for Koos, a veteran PH of 20 years, who has guided in that part of Namibia all of his professional life. In this specific concession, which he runs Huntafrica Safaris Namibia, with James and Christine Chapman, he has hunted for the past decade and prior to that another four years. He knows the seasons, the animals’ behaviour and the people of the San community who live in the multi-use park and who benefit directly from the hunting operations. Over the years he also got to know the ways of the poachers. Anti-poaching efforts have been a key responsibility of hunting professionals in the region. Thanks to a concerted effort by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Namibian Defense

Force to train a special anti-poaching unit, there have been hardly any poaching incidents in Bwabwata during the past years, back from a time when eight elephants were killed per day.

I caught up with Koos after the last hunting client left when the 2019 season ended, on a rare occasion when he came to Windhoek to say goodbye to his dying 96-year-old mother. He is not a man of words. More comfortable in the veld, around a campfire and with people who understand his world. I wanted to hear the story of this hunt from him. Why it was so exceptional to find bulls with big tusks in Namibia’s Zambezi Region and why there is such an abundance of wildlife in that part of the country now, given the fiercest drought in decades.

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CAPRIVI 100-POUNDER I don’t hunt, but as the publisher of Huntinamibia for more than twenty years I have read many boring as well as brilliant hunting stories. The best were those that read like a spy story. Where the reader can put himself in the boots of the hunter. Feel the heat and the wind.

Smell the wet grass, the burnt veld, notice the sounds of birds and marvel at the height of the 100 year old camel thorn or knob thorn trees when you sit in their shade to rest. The natural talent of the San trackers who grew up on the land and can interpret the wild. Who recognise trees like city dwellers recognise buildings. Who can walk along a sandy path with hundreds of tracks and then notice the one spoor they have never seen in that area before. A hunter who can describe what it feels like to come so close to an elephant that you smell him. You hear the rumbling sound coming from his throat. That sensation when you track a big bull and suddenly a whirlwind gives you away. He gets your scent, turns around, lifts his big head to look at you, the intruder, and then charges...

the next day they set out again and this time they found fresh spoor, and a new big one. Neither Koos nor his trackers recognised that spoor. It was not of a bull they had previously followed. They tracked the spoor for three kilometres and saw that the bull had joined a herd. They waited at a safe distance until he had done his rounds.

Satisfied that he was not in luck this time, he started walking away further into the bush. It was really a very big bull. The tusk sticking out under the lip was at least four feet. Koos put up the sticks but just then the wind changed. The bull got wind of them and took off into the bush. They followed in his tracks and after half an hour caught up again, this time in thick brush. He was nervous now. He knew they were there. He stood as if hesitating, then turned abruptly and came straight towards them with big strides. The shot hit him at fifteen yards, he stumbled and sank to the ground.

You have split seconds to make a decision.

That is what happened when Koos guided a South American hunter to this 100-pounder. They followed the river where the water was at an all time low and no bush on the plains higher than a man’s hip. Even the bark of big trees were stripped for sustenance. The baobabs were consumed to the point where they just disintegrate.

The area was teeming with life because the river was the only source of water. All the pans and the multitude of shallow water holes further north of the river were bone dry. Elephant herds, lechwe, impalas, roans, sables and eland come to drink at the river. Normally the only wind to take into account when hunting in this part of Namibia blows in July and August - a steady west wind in the afternoon. But in 2019, says Koos, there was a constant north-easterly, sometimes gale force wind and endless whirl winds, which makes tracking elephant extremely difficult and dangerous.

On the first day of this specific hunt they found a multitude of elephant tracks, some impressive in size, but at least a day old. Early

Koos Pienaar (left) guided a hunter to a 100-pounder in Bwabwata West in May 2019, Michel Mantheakis from Tanzania accompanied his client on an adventure in Namibia.

The circumference of both tusks was 21 inches, the “green” weight of the biggest tusk 100 pounds and the smaller one 79 pounds.

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Wisdom from an Old-time Hunter:

P.J. Schoeman’s Namibia P.J. Schoeman was Head of Etosha National Park from 1950 to 1955. He was appointed to this position after a sojourn as an academic in anthropology at Stellenbosch University, and later on as a politician and administrator in the South African Government. He was, however, mostly known as an author of story books, with nature, hunting and romance as his primary themes. Piet van Rooyen

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choeman was a true-blood adventurer.

He grew up on a farm in Kwazulu-Natal where he hunted with his Zulu hunting mates from an early age. He had great respect for the Zulu people and their traditions and wisdoms, and spoke the Zulu language fluently. After obtaining a B.A. degree in Anthropology at Stellenbosch University in 1930, he undertook a long single-man journey through East Africa, covering more than 4000 kilometres on foot and living with pastoral peoples in their home villages. He fell seriously ill with blackwater fever, the deadly version of malaria, before he returned to South Africa.

Afrikaans-speaking teenage boys, and his books were soon widely read. His love for unspoiled wilderness led to his growing interest in Namibia, not only with regard to his professional career but also his fiction.

He wrote his first novel with hunting as a theme: Die Swerwerjagter (The Wandererhunter) in 1930, followed by Die Jagterprins (The Hunting Prince) and Drie Jong Jagters (Three Young Hunters). These stories immediately struck a chord, especially with

He felt that three things were especially important in this regard: a good hunt should be “hard” and the prey animal a worthy opponent; the young “white” hunter should open himself to the mentorship of the older “native” hunter, in the role of a tracker,

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What makes the work of P.J. Schoeman particularly important is his ability to combine the adventure of the hunt with a heart-felt philosophy about the true position of hunter-man in nature, mentored by the age-old wisdom of primitive hunter-gatherer people. In his perception the lessons extracted from this could also be applied to the ideal relationship between people.

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protector and primary source of wisdom drawn from nature. Respect should be the main attribute of the true hunter. This respect should include respect for himself and his “manliness”, respect for his (often wiser-thanhimself ) tracker companion, and respect for his animal opponent during the hunt. Also: only when a man follows these guidelines can he become a worthy suitor to an equally worthy woman (or girl) who, in her own makeup, carries the essence of the natural and unspoiled female.

His books Op Vêr Paaie (On Far Paths), Waar Vêr Winde Waai (Where Far Winds Blow), and Terug op die Vêr Paaie (Back to the Far Roads) play out in the north-western semi-desert regions of the Kaokoveld of Namibia. The typical terrain there – dry, harsh, isolated – serves as a backdrop to his main themes of dangerous and difficult hunting, respect for nature and a willingness to accept the white

hunter’s vulnerability in a setting where he is the unfamiliar intruder.

One of the jackals was staring intently at a spot in the undergrowth, some distance to our left.

Apart from superficial references to hunting a fowl or an antelope for meat, in order to feed “his people”, the hunts reflected in his fiction are primarily the hunt for dangerous animals. Lion, especially, play the role of worthy opponent in this regard. Although the protagonist himself is never mauled or killed by an animal, his hunting associates are. This includes his co-hunter and friend, Bill (by a lion), and his tracker-mentor, Kalimbo (by a rhino).

“I can hear her going ‘hnggg’,” Kalimbo said intently, pointing his spear in the direction of a dense area in the bush.

The fatal lion hunt, during which Bill is killed by an angry lioness, is described in dramatic sequence. All the elements which are important in his hunting philosophy are reflected here: the worthy opponent, the loyal native supporter, the woman to be protected, the vulnerable friend.

“If that angry lioness charges us again I want to have the first shot at her. I want her blood,” said Bill.

“Watch out! Such a solitary lioness often likes to attack from behind,” I told him.

“So that is why you make Kalimbo walk at the back of the file!”

The next moment everything started happening in fast motion. I see a blur of movement. I hear Penny’s voice, shrill from the shock: “Johan, the lion has got Bill!”

Everything is now enveloped by a thick cloud of dust. I cannot see where to shoot. Running forward into the turmoil, I level my rifle but find only confusion to aim at.

his first game, a guinea fowl – but then, shortly afterwards, rebukes him in strong terms for failing to show the proper respect to him, the guide, as an older man – before teaching him how to take note of signs in the surroundings, in order for him not to get lost in the veld.

The scene at the end of this book, where the white hunter sits with his dying tracker-companion, Kalimbo, in his arms, reminiscing on their good times together in the hunting field, is a poignant reminder of the respect that individuals from different races can have for each other, when tempered by a lifetime of companionship in a dangerous world.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Kalimbo running directly and fearlessly into the clouds of dust. He lifts his spear. I can hear him calling out in his own language. “Usuthu!” he shouts. This is the ancient battle cry of his people. “Ngadla!” - I have eaten - I hear him shout…”

Modern-day hunters in Namibia – both resident hunters and visitors – can do well to consider these wisdoms of P.J. Schoeman when stepping into the hunting field: as hunters, but just as much as human beings, too.

During the hunt, and while describing the dangers and difficulties of the hunt, the protagonist-author reflects on life and on the privilege to be part of this life, while considering his own role as a student and as a teacher. In Terug op die Vêr Paaie, for instance, the protagonist-author guides the white city-bred teenage boy to hunt

The author of this story about P.J. Schoeman is himself a well-known writer of Afrikaans fiction with man-in-nature as primary theme.

Like Schoeman, he also studied Anthropology at Stellenbosch University, is now also a professor at University of Namibia, while being a keen hunter and a lover of nature in its unspoiled state.

“He can look after himself, and we can give all our attention to what lies in front of us.”

Penny, who followed us nervously, asked me: “But what do we do when she charges?”

“Don’t run! Whatever you do, don’t run. Rather fall down flat. We hunters will protect you with our rifles as far as we can.”

I wished I could have been one of the vultures circling high above us. From there I would be able to see where the lioness was hiding. As we slowly walked nearer to the elephant carcass I saw a few red-backed jackal, staying well away from the meat. This meant the lion was somewhere in the vicinity.

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A flash of horn

in the sunlight

Eland are special. Few animals are as powerful and magnificent as an old eland bull. He is big and grey and his spiral horns shine in the bright Namibian sun. And he is at his most beautiful when he turns and effortlessly trots away from you with muscles rippling and the massive head and neck held high. He makes it look easy, disappearing into the dust and the bush before you can even raise your rifle. Faster than you can get a good look. Maybe he spotted you stalking him, or maybe one of the half dozen cows in his company noticed you first. Then they all disappear, leaving behind only the noise of breaking branches and powerful hooves pounding the sunbaked earth. You got busted. Bruce J. Mincher

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land are also special because to hunt them you really have to hunt. If you are unfortunate you might shoot one from the car or maybe at a waterhole, but that’s your bad luck because it’s not the way to get your eland. The value of a trophy is in direct proportion to the effort spent bagging it, and with eland it usually isn’t from the car or at the waterhole. It often starts by spotting a flash of sunlight reflected from a far-away horn as the bull turns his head while browsing. Then the stalk is on.

Or sometimes it starts by checking the waterhole for the spoor from the night. Then it’s a game of tracking that may last all day. I’ve hunted more eland than I’ve shot. Sometimes the spoor is lost,

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or we are busted by impala or springbok. Perhaps you get pinned down by a suspicious eland cow. This invariably happens when you have one foot in the air and a fly lands on your nose. But you mustn’t move. I remember being trapped this way one time while the bull passed safely out of sight on the brushy slope below. Or maybe you followed him all day in the heat and the dust but it was too dark to shoot when you finally caught up with him. Or perhaps you just didn’t catch up. But even when he gets away the hunt is rewarding, because the eland is a worthy adversary. He is special.

On this hunt my son Erik hoped to take his first eland bull. We scrambled up the steep slope of a rocky koppie on Farm Askevold,

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following Hagen Eggert of Omatjete Safaris. The rock pile made for unsure footing and looked like a wonderful place to find a snake, but at the top was the lookout from which we would glass “MMBA - miles and miles of bloody Africa”, hoping to find that glint of horn in the evening sun. On previous days we had spotted two young bulls travelling alone in the mountains, and a sizeable herd of cows and calves on the flats. But so far a big, grey, mature bull had not revealed himself.

At the top of the rocks was a long narrow ridge with real trees including the famous Marula, which stood in noble contrast to the wicked thorns we had left far below.

Somewhere in their massive curving branches a Go-away-bird (grey loerie) alerted all who would listen that two-legged predators were on the prowl. From here we could glass in both directions and we crept cautiously along the length of the ridge, stopping frequently to look and listen. Find an eland with your eyes, not your legs. You will need your legs later for the stalk. But so far we had found only a few gemsbok. They

quietly worked their way through the trees below us, unaware of our presence. And everywhere the iconic sound of the doves, urging us to “drink Tafel, drink Tafel…”

This is the sound of Africa.

Finally we reached our destination. A rocky outcrop projected from the ridge above a cliff with a grand view of much of Farm Askevold as it disappeared toward the horizon. Lone mountains rose from the arid planes casting long shadows as the sun travelled to the west. Back home we would call them buttes. It is amazing how much my Idaho home and Namibia have in common. Both have approximately two million human residents and an economy based on agriculture, and both are blessed with abundant wildlife and wild places. Much of Idaho even has an arid appearance similar to the vista from our lookout, at least in summer. The eland are lucky they never have to endure an Idaho winter, though.

Each of us chose a comfortable rock, still warm from the afternoon sun, and began our vigil. Hagen knew the likely places to

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KHOMAS HUNTING

HIGHLAND SAFARIS

NAMIBIA

A FLASH OF HORN IN THE SUNLIGHT

look at and concentrated on those.

Erik and I glassed, too, probably more randomly and less effectively but with much enthusiasm, trusting Hagen's skill and judgement, based on our previous experience. And of course we hoped that tonight would be the night.

"Taken in the right way there is no finer trophy, and there will be Africa’s best steaks with the Tafel Lager tonight."

At first the plains seemed empty, devoid of life. But after only a few minutes we began to pick out animals in the bush and the shadows.

A small group of impala, maybe a mile away, and Hagen also pointed out a giraffe bull even further away. I never would have seen him and I marvelled at how well such a big animal is camouflaged in the bush. Erik and I talked quietly about my past eland hunts both here and on nearby farms. A group of mountain zebra materialised out of the landscape. I could see them only now, but they had been there all along. The sun dropped lower and we were running out of time for a stalk. But the low contrasting light is what we needed to reveal the turn of an eland head, a flash reflected from a polished horn. I wondered if Erik wasn’t disappointed. Two days of this had turned up nothing. We continued to search, now being scolded by the Go-away-birds as well as a rock dassie.

“There they are,” Hagen says, in his matter-offact tone. We are excited, hoping it is a group of bulls. Or is it just that group of cows again?

They are far away in the flats, foraging among the thorns. With a bit of coaching I can see them. I can make out the great grey eland shapes browsing slowly through mixed thorn copses and high grass. Now the hunt is on.

As we retrace our steps back down the rock piles I can see the stoic look on Erik’s face. I know his feelings. If he is like me they are a mix of excitement, hope for a successful outcome, and perhaps a bit of doubt. Anything can still go wrong. The eland are far, the stalk will be long and the light is fading. Will the shot be good? Will there be a shot at all? As we approach the bottom the terrain flattens and the walking becomes easier than the previous hopping from boulder to boulder. We crunch dry leaves and sticks but that’s ok here, far from the herd. A kudu cow bounds away with an erect tail. Although we can no longer see the eland, Hagen leads us in their direction. He knows his farm well. The first mile is brisk, we mustn’t waste precious light. We travel along at his pace, trying to avoid too much blood loss on the thorns; and perhaps I am overly paranoid about ticks. We have those back home, too. But this is not the time to worry about such things. In the failing light the shadows are cool now.

to their advantage. I see the sticks come up and I know this is the climax of three days of hunting. There, eighty yards beyond, I can see him, all big and grey and unaware of the danger. His tail swishes back and forth as he shakes flies from his head.

The shot comes quickly and at the report hooves are pounding as all the eland disappear. Hagen asks Erik how he felt about the shot and Erik replies that it was good.

Now we hurry through the waist-high yellow grass, following the trail left by the bull although we see no blood. But after fifty yards we find him. The shot was indeed good and the hunt is successful. The stoic expression on Erik’s face is replaced by a smile as there are handshakes, back slaps and exchanges of Waidmannsheil all around. Erik has his eland and the hunt was one to be proud of. Taken in the right way there is no finer trophy, and there will be Africa’s best steaks with the Tafel Lager tonight.

We slow down. Hagen feels we must be only a hundred yards away. Erik moves ahead with him, as I drop behind a bit. No need for extra noise. We must remain alert not just for eland but also those impala. If we spook them we lose the eland, too. Suddenly the two hunters stop all hunched over and I see Hagen pointing into the dark bush. Erik nods and I know they see something that I can’t. But I don’t see the shooting sticks come up. Something is wrong. I creep up to them, and they attempt to point out an impala ram bedded in a shadow ahead. I just can’t see him but we are pinned down. Hagen and Erik both see him and I am frustrated at my blindness. We wait as the sun sinks ever lower. The air now has a chill. This invisible impala is about to ruin all our plans.

But then he stands up and I can finally see him. He is a fine ram with long pointed horns sweeping above his head, but not what we have spent days searching for. He moves off and our stalk is back on. We now creep toward where we think the eland will be and only a few yards further Hagen points them out. How nearly that ram had spoiled everything. I drop back again as Erik and Hagen sneak in closer, using every thin bush

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WHAT BETTER WAY TO TEACH

the young

Farm hunting that takes place exclusively on foot or from hunting hides, and never from a vehicle, is extremely gratifying and should be considered as the true way of hunting expertly and sustainably. Axel Cramer

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taught my nephew Adriaan as a young boy how to handle a rifle safely, and in the beginning we often went out hunting with the .22 long rifle.

The most common game species in our area, besides gemsbok, is the red hartebeest. We normally hunt hartebeest for the kitchen and for staff rations.

After I was satisfied that Adriaan was comfortable and responsible with the small calibre over open sights, he successfully hunted his first gemsbok. And now he was ready to hunt his first hartebeest with me, here on Petersfarm.

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It is always a delight to stalk in our diverse surroundings; to hunt on foot without knowing what might be behind the next bush, and to be able to freely hunt for venison. I am very fond of my nephew, how he always willingly helped on the farm and how hunting also became a passion for him. I feel responsible for him in this respect, as neither his parents nor his twin brother show much interest in the farm or in hunting.

Early one morning, farmworker Willem excitedly informs me that he spotted a herd of hartebeest grazing not too far from the farmhouse. We immediately grab our gear and, with the taste of fresh morning coffee

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and home-baked beskuit still lingering in the mouth, we are on our way. Willem stays behind; Adriaan and I will try to successfully stalk the hartebeest.

I feel the stubble of the grass, cropped by grazing, through the thin soles of my vellies, and the weight of my Mauser comfortably rests on my shoulder. Adriaan carries a .375 H&H with open sights, to try and bag his hartebeest bull.

This is my kind of hunting: no wild car chases after game animals before they escape to safety through the next hole in the cattle fence, but stalking on foot in a varying landscape

without game proof fences. An environment where antelopes are in their ideal habitat and occur in their historic ranges. For these reasons, and because of high game densities, many cattle farms are perfect grounds for hunters. Cattle fences pose no barrier to the indigenous game species: kudu and eland easily jump over these fences and all other game crawls through underneath.

It is very warm now and the sun is burning down relentlessly, making us sweat profusely. We pass through the wide valley of the seasonal Black Nossob River with its magnificent, slightly undulating savannah, and then carefully approach a camel thorn tree sporting its yellow blooms.

And there, suddenly, we see the hartebeest.

Now we have to be extremely cautious. As usual, the stalk up to shooting distance over open sights turns out to be more demanding than planned.

It is an open landscape and we have to approach the hartebeest slowly and crouched

"It is always a delight to stalk in our diverse surroundings; to hunt on foot without knowing what might be behind the next bush, and to be able to freely hunt for venison." down very low. For the last metres I lean my Mauser into a sparse thorn shrub, put the shooting sticks across my lap and with Adriaan right behind me, we move forward on our bottoms.

Driven by my own hunting passion, we get into shooting distance of the hartebeest after some strenuous crawling. But suddenly we

hear the typical snorting of a watchful cow and I know that now we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have much time to take a shot. The small herd is getting restless and is slowly moving off. We use the opportunity to stand up and position ourselves over the shooting sticks.

The hartebeest are not too alarmed and stop to look back. Adriaan has the .375 at the ready and manages to squeeze out a shot on a bull â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a little high, but after a short distance he goes down.

As we approach the hartebeest bull I immediately see that this is a special trophy.

I point out to Adriaan that this is a really big old bull: his colour is dark red-brown, the impressive gnarled horns have prominent chunking of dead cells at the base and the tips are worn back â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what a bull! Adriaan is not only happy about the trophy, but also about the hunting experience that led him to this trophy.

Not just any hunting experience, but challenging, primal and ethical hunting.

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HUNTING LEOPARD ON FOOT

IN THE NAMIB

Last July we concluded another successful leopard hunt at Na-GUMBO on the edge of Namib-Naukluft Park. That wouldn’t be anything extraordinary because all over Namibia many leopards are hunted successfully every year. What makes this one an exceptional leopard hunt in our area is that it took place on foot, as successful leopard hunts in previous years. We have now hunted five leopards with our unique method.

Luis Barreras

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panish hunter Javier booked this hunt in October last year after visiting NaGUMBO with his father. His father took a big leopard while feeding on a bait after we approached on foot.

At least 2 months prior to a hunt we start putting out bait in six or seven different places in the territory of a big male. Through this we can also study the leopard’s movements to find out how we can best approach him on foot once the hunter has arrived.

On this particular hunt, I guided Javier and we were focusing on leopard, while his sister Ainhoa and brother-in-law Chemi were guided on plains game, also at NaGUMBO, by my good friend and colleague, PH Martin Britz.

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I expected that this would be a difficult hunt as I couldn’t establish a clear system in the movements of three big males which took to the baits. All of them were coming to their bait at completely different times, although mostly during daytime, as our trail cameras showed.

This also surprised Martin, and we can only explain this with the fact that our hunting area covers a vast 42,000 hectares, the remoteness of the area and the territories of these big males.

Obviously they were very confident; they did not seem to be scared of anything.

On the fourth day of hunting, while Javier and I were checking on two baits – after having waited unsuccessfully in one of the blinds for many hours the previous day – I received a call on the radio at around half past nine in the morning from Martin. “Luis, I am at Hyena Dam and there is a big leopard

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at the bait, approximately 150 meters from us”. We were about 30 km from Martin, and I asked him to keep an eye on the leopard.

While I was driving towards Hyena Dam with Javier and my loyal tracker Joe as fast as I could, Martin called again – to inform me that he moved back some 100 metres and that the leopard had jumped out of the tree but then came back to the bait.

Ainhoa and Chemi, together with Martin, witnessed all the movements of the leopard and were again surprised by the big cat’s confidence.

I stopped the car approximately a kilometre from Hyena Dam, after driving slowly for the last 2 or 3 km to make as little noise as possible.

I told Javier that we would approach the leopard from the west, as the wind was

blowing from the east. We would have to climb a small hill to get up high enough to look over the crest into the bushes where the bait was hanging. I insisted, however, that we would not shoot unless we had a clear shot from up the hill. Javier, Joe and I started stalking and climbing, our rifles ready, up to the crest of the hill. From our approach up the western side of the small hill we could see Martin and his hunting party checking on the leopard through their binoculars. The scene was amazing.

were excellent. With the steady support over the rock Javier had a good chance at taking his leopard at this distance.

hug and congratulated him on a great shot right through the heart after the approach up the hill.

A few minutes passed and when the leopard stood broadside in the tree I told Javier to shoot. A split-second later the shot rang out.

A few minutes later Martin arrived with Ainhoa and Chemi and all of us enjoyed the moment and realised that we bagged a beautiful old cat, with many scars and marks of fighting on his face â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and big he was, very bigâ&#x20AC;Ś

Once we reached the crest I reckoned that we were about 140 m from the leopard, still at the bait. I changed places with Javier to give him the better shooting position across a rock.

We walked down to the river and approaching this big leopard I took all precautions until I was sure he was dead.

I knew Javier was a good shot, he had hunted with me the previous year and all his shots

The leopard reacted by jumping out of the tree and running into the riverbed to the right. After fleeing for about 40 meters he collapsed there.

The adrenaline rush slowly ebbed off and feelings of pure relief and happiness about a successful hunt took over. I gave Javier a big

The skull measured 40.7 cm in total, and he weighed 73 kilograms.

Congratulations to the hunter, Javier, on his wonderful trophy, to Joe on a job well done and excellent eyes, and to my good friend Martin without whom we would have missed this golden opportunity to hunt another big leopard on foot.

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Christiaan Willinger

HUNTING ON THE EDGE OF THE NAMIB

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I hunted gemsbok on several occasions in Namibia, and usually the length of a trophy was not my primary focus. But as I had bagged a few of these beautiful antelope already, I now wanted to hunt for an exceptional trophy beyond the 36 inch mark.

Udo Krabbe

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ngo is confident. Gemsbok bulls on his property boast an average horn length around 36”; the previous two hunters bagged bulls of 37 and 38 inches.

We see plenty of gemsbok, but as soon as we catch sight of a bull that is near the ‘magic number’, he takes flight and is not seen again. I am a bit peeved that my ‘unlucky’ streak from the previous years continues, we just do not seem to be able to get close to a bull.

On a little detour to a remote corner of the property, which is almost desert habitat, we visit the spring that gave the farm its name: Wilsonfontein. Covering nearly 72 000 acres (29 000 ha), the Wilsonfontein property is big, even by Namibian standards. For a German hunter coming from crowded surroundings, it is simply enormous. The real proportions only become apparent after a few days.

Apart from plains as flat as can be, a considerable part of the farm features wild, rugged mountains, most of them granite, with names like Bischofshut (Bishop’s Hat), Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet), Elefantenberge (Elephant Mountains), Zuckerhut (Sugarloaf Mountain) or Hottentottenkirche (Hottentot's Chapel).

So far I had seen this part of Namibia only on various trips to the coast. When I first travelled across the Gamsberg Pass towards the Namib many years ago, this grandiose landscape already charmed me. Here I wanted to hunt. However, 20 years passed before this dream to hunt for desert game became a reality on Wilsonfontein.

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Back at the house we measure the horns: the longer one of the worn down horns is 34 ½”. How is that possible? When we first spotted the bull, we were certain that he would exceed my ‘magic number’.

Ingo has an explanation: if a gemsbok spends almost his entire life in the Namib, he neither reaches the weight nor the size of gemsbok who have easy access to water and good grazing. The realisation that this valiant warrior, who has probably been in the flimmering heat of the Namib Desert all his life, does not deserve bickering because of being short by just over one inch, quickly dispels the initial disappointment.

On the quest for a good springbok we are stalking in the area where I hunted my Namib gemsbok. In a herd of old bachelors, dozing in the relentless midday sun in one of the valleys, we spot a decent ram and are able to stalk them with relative ease. A few rocks serve as a steady support and I take a shot at the ram at less than 200 yards – miss! Even today I cannot explain why I failed. Maybe some higher, well-meaning powers intervened? Had I bagged the springbok, we would have returned home straightaway and the following would never have happened.

At this very Wilsonfontein spring, water emerges all year round from between a limestone and a granite formation, the soil around it churned up by game tracks.

On the way back from this small wonder in the desert we suddenly see a lonely gemsbok in one of the adjacent valleys. He has noticed us already and takes off further into the valley, and soon disappears from sight. We could not really size him up, but agree that he is not too small. We follow the bull on foot through a parallel valley. After about a kilometre we climb the ridge separating the two valleys. The ground is covered in loose rubble, which makes stalking noiselessly almost impossible.

Miniature avalanches are constantly set free by our steps. Intermittently a strong, choppy wind muffles most of the noise we make, but it feels like a hot-air fan on the skin. We slowly edge towards the crest and immediately see the gemsbok on the opposite side of the next valley.

Time is of the essence now. I quickly crawl to a small boulder, which provides a good support for my rifle. The wind tugs at the rifle and as I pull the trigger I realise that I have hit the animal too far in front and too high. The bull slowly continues to flee and blood spurts from the entry wound. I expect the bull to collapse at any moment and therefore do not follow up with a second shot. A critical mistake as it soon turns out. Ingo urges me to take another shot and at over 350 yards I pull the trigger again. The bull’s only reaction to the shot is to accelerate.

We follow the wounded animal at the double. Again and again the bull appears on the horizon when he crosses a crest, but the distance between us only increases. Then, in the cover of a neighbouring valley, we can overtake the gemsbok so that now he is moving towards us; and when he is close enough, we can finally take him down. As we approach him a short while later, we have to realise that he still hasn’t breathed his last. A coup de grâce finally ends his life. I am in emotional turmoil: on the one hand I am glad that we finally got the bull, but on the other hand I am angry at myself for the poor shots, although the first two shots had seemed to be deadly.

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After I swallowed my frustration about the miss we get back into the Land Cruiser and slowly rumble towards the Stahlhelm.

We spend some time in the vicinity of the Stahlhelm – a smoothly polished granite massif, a few hundred yards high, which from a certain perspective actually does look like a German WWI steel helmet – but eventually decide to return to the homestead because the sun is beating down mercilessly. And just as we come around the next boulder we spot him!

In a wide, shallow valley we see what at first glance seem to be two female gemsbok because the horns are simply too long for one bull.

But then one of the would-be cows makes half-a-turn and we clearly see that it is a bull.

He moves further into the valley with his companion and as soon as they are out of sight, Ingo, tracker Simeon and I take up the chase.

Where we are now, the valley basin is more than a kilometre wide and lined by rock faces with a height of 50 to 100 yards. A few kilometres further on the walls of rock move in ever closer and form a narrow passage of less than 100 yards. Behind the passage, the basin widens again and gives the valley the appearance of an egg timer.

The gemsbok have disappeared towards the waist of the ‘egg timer’ and a few bushy patches provide enough cover for us to make an approach, but at the same time they prevent us from seeing exactly where the two animals are heading.

Some 500 yards before the valley narrows a few boulders are scattered across its bottom. Behind them we stop briefly to discuss how to carry on. As we continue our stalk and peek over the boulders we can see that the two gemsbok have positioned themselves right in the bottleneck, which enables them to keep check of this strategic spot in both directions. Due to this gambit we are stuck in our position behind the boulders. We have no choice but to wait and swelter in the relentless heat.

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HUNTING ON THE EDGE OF THE NAMIB 45 minutes later and the two have not moved an inch. Finally, after more than an hour they slowly start to move to the left of the bottleneck and soon disappear over the ridge. At last we can emerge from our forced hideout. First of all we have to retrace our steps almost back to the hunting vehicle to get into the neighbouring valley. In said valley we want to advance as far as the bottleneck and then scale the rocky crest that separates our valley from the ‘egg timer’ valley. Not a bad plan, but far more challenging than anticipated. Several times we have to stop and retrace our steps because there is no way forward. Eventually we are able to peep over the edge. We can see almost the entire valley, but not the two gemsbok.

A rocky outcrop blocks the view of a small part near the bottleneck. Since that was where we saw the two gemsbok last, we decide to climb around the outcrop along the crest, to get a better view of the hidden area. Just at that moment I hear a soft whistle from Simeon. He clambered some 20 yards up to the crest in the opposite direction and apparently has spotted the gemsbok. Without letting them out of his sight, he waves me closer.

Reaching him, I peer over the crest and immediately see the two gemsbok standing in a small side valley just a little more than 100 yards away from me. Right then they notice me and immediately start moving towards the ‘egg timer’ valley. From this moment I am in a kind of auto mode. As if on a driven hunt, the rifle is at the ready on my shoulder, and intuitively I aim in front of the bull and let fly; repeat and shoot again. I feel that both shots were well-placed. The bull flies over the top of a gravel slope and then stops in such a way that only the long horns stick out over the ridge. After a while the horns drop and we assume that he has gone down.

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We cautiously stalk closer and have to realise that the bull is not down yet but has in fact moved a hundred yards further. A shot to his neck finally ends his flight. Slowly we walk up to the giant.

I cannot believe my luck! A dream has come true, and to an extent that I could never have imagined. I must admit that Ingo and I broke our rule and soon pulled out the measuring tape. Both horns are longer than 39 inches, the longer one measuring almost 40½".

Cobalt Street 112 Prosperita, Windhoek P.O. Box 22795 Windhoek 10005 - NAMIBIA Cell: +264 81 222 6285 / ctc. Kai smartdip@namsaf.com.na Fax: +264 (0)61 301 760

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I am particularly grateful to Simeon, without whom this undertaking would probably not have been successful.

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A young man’s lion

AT /AOTCHA PAN I met P.J. Schoeman - author, anthropologist, philosopher, nature conservator and hunter - a few years before his death at his retirement home in Stellenbosch, when I was a young student. Being an aspiring writer of fiction myself, I considered him a sort of mentor figure. I still remember him telling me the story of how, shortly after his appointment as Head of Etosha National Park, he went to see Oom Jan Robbertse, the renowned elephant hunter of Angola and Kaokoland, whom he, on his part, saw as a possible mentor. When he showed Oom Jan a carefully drawn picture of an elephant and asked him to please indicate the correct places where to aim his rifle in case of a confrontation, the old hunter told him in all earnest: “Listen, my boy, I don’t study these things, I damn well shoot them!” With this, Schoeman probably wanted to tell me to disregard all advice and just do my own thing in the field of fiction. I proceeded to do just that in my career as a writer.

Piet van Rooyen

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hen the editor of Huntinamibia asked me to write a short article on P.J. Schoeman, I found an archive picture of him sitting next to a downed lioness. At that time Schoeman was definitely a much younger man than when I met him during his last years. When I was young myself and in love, I read his love story Where the Far Winds Blow, in which he used a lion charge to bring the story to its fatal ending.

At the place of action I found only a year-old steer, killed but not eaten. I reckoned that the lions had been frightened off by the shouting of the herders, and that they would return at night. I got the herdsmen to stack a small enclosure of thorn bushes around the carcass. Two of the hunters joined me, very reluctantly, in the enclosure. I would need someone to help shine the torch if the lions turned up.

The picture of my mentor with his lioness made me think back to my own lion, which I shot in what was then Namibia’s Bushmanland (now part of the Otjozondjupa Region). I was working for the Nyae Nyae Foundation. My job was to instruct the Ju/’hoansi huntergatherers in cattle herding as an alternative to their traditional way of living. After long negotiations, we obtained permission from Nature Conservation to shoot any predator that was killing the newly-introduced Ju/’hoan cattle. I wrote a book, Following an Eland, of my day-to-day experiences amongst the Ju/’hoansi. My own lion hunt is part of it.

As soon as darkness fell the lions moved nearer to the carcass and started roaring with tremendous volume. There must have been at least six of them. It seemed to me as if the whole earth was shaking. They, however, were aware of our presence and refused to show themselves. The night got darker and colder. The lions kept roaring, probably trying to intimidate us and frighten us off. They very much succeeded with the intimidation.

The only thing that kept us sitting was the knowledge that it would probably be safer inside the ring of thorns than outside in the stark darkness.

I reread the story of my lion hunt with some trepidation. Amazement at my own audacity and lack of good sense struck me more and more as I read on. I couldn’t believe that I had the courage, or rather the foolhardiness, to confront a whole pack of lions at night, armed with only a torch and an ex-military .303 Lee Metford rifle.

Shortly after midnight we see the lights of an approaching vehicle. “That’s old Frikkie coming to pick us up. High time!” Kxau tells me. Frikkie is our camp manager and jack-ofall-trades. The two Ju/’hoansi immediately get into the safety and comfort of the vehicle. By now my blood pressure is up, however, and a sense of fatalism, a young man’s come-whatmay attitude, has invaded my senses. “I am staying,” I tell Frikkie. “Suit yourself!” was his laconic reply.

The story starts when Kxau, one of the Ju/’hoan hunters, came running to my camp late in the afternoon, shouting: “Trouble!

Trouble! The lions caught some cattle at Klein /Aotcha!” My old .303 was the only rifle available in camp and I was sitting barefoot and in my shorts, not at all ready for lion hunting. Kxau, however, wanted to know none of this and kept telling me to come shoot the lions. I had no option but to take my rifle and follow him.

At that time, lions were still seen as “vermin”, in the same conservation category as baboons, jackal and caracal; and any means could be employed to hunt them. An inspection by Nature Conservation was, however, required nevertheless. We would do the reporting afterwards, I thought, once I managed to kill the lion, or lions, if they were more than one.

The vehicle was barely 50 metres away when the whole pack of lions immediately moved in on the carcass, disregarding my presence as of no concern. I tried to level the clumsy rifle, but could not manage to get torchlight and sights in line. Only now I realised how close the lions were. It seemed as if I could touch them. I could definitely hear and smell them. Now properly scared, I drew myself into a small bundle and lay listening to them eating, tearing flesh and crunching bone. This feast of horrors took up the rest of the night.

I thankfully awaited the appearance of first light in the morning. The lions had moved the remains of the carcass into some thick

blackthorn bushes. I followed the drag marks on hands and knees, unable to stand upright under the thick clutter of branches, but soon realised that I was staking my life on bad odds.

A thought suddenly crossed my mind: the waterhole at Klein /Aotcha is just a few hundred meters off and the lions had probably gone to drink there after their heavy meal.

I slowly moved along a game track in the direction of the waterhole, until I had a clear view of the water. Here I sat and waited.

Then I heard the heavy breathing of a lion, nose held low, clearly following directly in my footsteps. The next moment a huge and heavily-maned lion stepped out of the bush, a mere ten metres to my right, and half behind me. I swung the rifle over and could see his shaggy face filling up the view in the telescope in a blur of unfocused tawny-and-black colours. I didn't even realise that I closed my fist on the trigger. I just saw the huge animal spinning in mad somersaults of pain and anger right next to me, biting himself in the forelegs, mane and flanks.

The next moment he jumped up and stared me in the face. I felt and smelled his breath, a sickly sweet smell of stomach juices and freshly eaten meat. Mesmerised, I completely forgot to shoot again. Then I did. Fortunately.

The lion disappeared into the tall grass. I could hear him breathing his last, but was too shaky to follow up. I looked for a tree in the vicinity to climb. There was none. Then, in the crisp morning light, I heard Frikkie’s vehicle starting up in camp. They were coming to get me. What a relief!

I joined the bunch of Ju/’hoan men on the back of the pickup when Frikkie drove us into the tall grass. There he lay, almost as majestic in death as in real life – a big male lion, with a massive head and full mane.

Later, when a PH friend of mine measured the skull, he turned out to be the biggest lion shot in Namibia up to then. He may still be the biggest. My friend still has the skull at his hunting lodge.

I don’t have that kind of mad courage any more. I am older and wiser.

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Akiro

the ultimate hunting companion

Scientists agree that humans domesticated wolves more than 20 000 years ago, to use them as hunting companions. Today dogs are still used for hunting across the world.

In Europe, much more than here in Namibia, dogs are bred and trained for the purpose of hunting; in Namibia mixed-breed dogs rather than pure-bred hunting dogs often accompany hunts. And if there are any pure breeds, they tend to be used as guard or family dogs, because most hunting outfits employ hunting assistants and trackers. There is no apparent need for hunting dogs. Anne Fechter

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arly in the morning, after a mug of strong, hot coffee and a sandwich with farm-smoked meat and prickly pear jam we are rumbling across the rugged Schwarzrand landscape in the south of Namibia. The morning sky to the east slowly announces the impending sunrise, and the ice-cold wind hits our faces. We are wrapped in thick coats and wear beanies. Eventually the first pinkish-orange sun rays appear over the horizon and immerse the grand, endless landscape in a golden light. The dry grass sways ever so lightly and the pods of the trumpet-thorn rattle in the wind, bringing a slight restlessness to the otherwise peaceful mood of this incredibly beautiful clear morning in our semi-desert terrain.

My face and hands are freezing, and I cannot even feel my nose anymore.

My companion next to me doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind the cold. Akiro, my Hanover Hound, alert with excitement, sits on the passenger seat and tests the wind as we drive along. His silky, dark-brown droopy ears flapping in the wind. The beautiful yellow-brown eyes in the dark earnest face intently scan all directions. He knows that he will be working today, and that today may be a special day for him. I am just grateful to have him!

Yesterday was long and exhausting and we did not sleep well. We had to follow an old gemsbok bull that my client Max wounded at 150 yards after a strenuous stalk across the rocky gravel plains.

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The bull, standing broadside, turned just as the shot rang out, went down but came up immediately again and took off. With our tracker we immediately set out on the little bit of blood trail because the hunting truck was too far to fetch Akiro. Needless to say, we did not find the bull as daylight disappeared fast, and we could no longer keep the track. With heavy hearts and emptyhanded we had to return home.

On said morning we are driving as far as possible into the hunting area to get as close as possible to the spot where Max took the shot. From a ridgeline we scan the valley in front of us through our binoculars â&#x20AC;&#x201C; nothing in sight. I recognise a cluster of trees that we passed yesterday and we drive down the hill, along the valley to stop behind those trees.

Akiro senses that the action is about to start! Eagerly he waits on his seat for me to put on his harness so that he can get going.

Max grabs the rucksack with water and lunchtime snacks, and I shoulder the rifle and shooting sticks, holding Akiro on his lead to my left. We proceed for about 100 yards, the same way that I remember we took yesterday. Akiro sniffs the ground excitedly and looks ahead for what is coming.

I recognise a shepherdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tree that we passed on our stalk yesterday.

We continue at a brisk pace and soon find the spot from where

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starts the pursuit again and on we go. The wounded animal has walked noticeably slower here than before and therefore lost a lot less blood. But thanks to Akiro’s excellent sense of smell we can continue to follow the blood trail across the endless rocky landscape, broken only by the occasional tuft of dry grass. When Akiro has picked up a strong scent I can often just follow him, stumbling across the stone-strewn ground.

We are now some 3 km from where we left the car in the morning. Ahead of us is another long valley. There is nothing of interest to spot, and the midday-sun and warm winds are getting at us. Akiro is panting heavily and looks for shade under a trumpet-thorn.

Max shot at the bull. Akiro picks up the scent of something and is suddenly very agitated and wants to continue. 50 yards further we come to the spot where the gemsbok took the shot. Off we go! With his delicate sense of smell Akiro immediately found the blood trail, which he now follows focussed and diligently.

Other dog handlers would probably let their dog loose at this point, but I keep Akiro on the leash. A gemsbok is an ablebodied dangerous game animal, and many dogs have been mortally wounded by the razor-sharp pointed horns of this antelope.

At first the bull lost a lot of blood. We find patches of it every 20 yards and big drops every 30 yards or so. After about one kilometre the blood gets less and less, but Akiro still has his nose on the ground, following the trail with determination, and I let myself be led by him.

We decide to take a break and eat our lunch in the inviting shade of a huge camelthorn tree. Akiro is very thirsty and I give him enough to drink. After a short rest we pick up the blooddrops trail again.

I hug and praise Akiro, and he looks at me reassuringly as if to say “Don’t worry, we will get to the end of this.” Not long after that we come to a patch of sandy soil and are easily able to follow the gemsbok tracks although blood drops have become very scarce. Akiro sniffs the blood intensively and then continues with his nose on the ground. I follow him and check the tracks as we go along.

As the afternoon is almost over now and the trail continues on rocky ground again,

where we have difficulty following them, I decide to have the hunting truck fetched so that we can drive in the general direction of the blood trail in the hope of making up some ground.

Akiro sticks his head out the window and scents the air intently. Suddenly he bays.

Again and again he barks, I can hardly contain him. At the same time Niklas spots a gemsbok some distance away under a tree.

Is that our wounded bull? I put Akiro on his leash and we quickly approach the gemsbok.

Akiro scents the air again and gives a short bark – and off the gemsbok goes again! We run after him, Akiro has taken up the scent trail and dashes forward. I can barely follow him through the bushes; behind me, Max is on my heels with the shooting sticks and rifle over sticks and stones. Akiro stops in his tracks and barks, the gemsbok also halts and I can bring him down with a clean shot.

What a follow-up! 24 hours later and for almost 5 kilometres we were only able to follow the blood trail because of the hound’s exceptional sense of smell. We take a closer look at the gemsbok bull and see that the first bullet hit between the ribs and front leg without reaching the vitals.

Waidmannsheil, Max! Well done, Akiro!

Drained and exhausted, but grateful, we make our way back home. Now I am more convinced than ever that a good hunting dog is imperative for an ethical, fair-chase hunt in Namibia, as it is in Europe.

Then, a sudden halt! Akiro sniffs, turns around, comes back again, turns around again and wants to come around behind me – has he lost the trail? We carefully search the ground for blood. Nothing. We walk in a big circle around where we last had the trail – nothing. With the help of our tracker, Niklas, we cannot find anything either.

As the ground is covered with gravel there are no tracks to be found. Suddenly Akiro intently sniffs at a completely different spot: Yes! I find a tiny twig that has broken off and a droplet of blood – the gemsbok bull apparently made a sharp turn here. Akiro

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Back to the

ROOTS Infected by the Bacillus africanus, my client Alexander was back hunting again with us in April. This time we wanted to try for an eland bull. Alexander was looking for a challenge and had brought his Krieghoff Classic Big Five double-barrell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Back to the rootsâ&#x20AC;? I thought. I was impressed that somebody had the courage to hunt such a difficult antelope with a side-by-side and over open sights. Especially in such drought conditions where very little cover was left. It would also be a challenge for me, to bring my hunter close enough to the quarry for a shot over open sights. With the big calibre of a .450/.400 NE and without scope, we could only take a safe shot from up to 100 yards, but as we knew each other, I was looking forward to hunt with Alexander. Hans Christian Denk

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e were roaming the bush for days and scanned the valleys and the surroundings from the hilltops. The bush was sparse and offered little cover. No eland in sight, although it should have been easy to spot them. Our search and daily hunting excursion, however, taught us a valuable lesson: despite their massive bodies, eland are very secretive and quiet.

We had some successful hunting in between, bagging a big hartebeest bull, which of course was to be expected in the prime area and cradle of red hartebeest.

At sunrise on the fifth hunting day we were out again, still looking for that elusive eland bull. From hilltop to hilltop we went, when we suddenly heard something making a racket in the bush below us: two eland bulls trotted through a clearing with long strides and into a patch of bush. They poised for a moment, looked back towards us, but remained unsure and trotted off up the opposite slope against the wind. When they had disappeared over the ridge, we waited for a while and then got ready for our stalk.

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BACK TO THE ROOTS

"Now we had to just wait patiently for him to move out from behind the bush."

We soon lost the tracks on the gravel slope, and followed in the presumed direction of their flight. From a rocky outcrop, where I had seen eland move past a number of times before, we wanted to scan the surroundings for the two bulls.

At a distance of some 1.5 kilometres I could make out two bulls, just disappearing into a bushy valley. They were unmistakably ‘our’ two bulls. One big old bull, and a younger one. We continued watching through our binoculars and soon spotted the eland again.

We waited until they calmly started to browse. Now we followed them, closing the distance.

we crept towards the first eland until we were within 80 yards. As we got closer I saw that this was the older, big bull. Now we had to just wait patiently for him to move out from behind the bush. We hoped that he would come out broadside, so that Alexander – rifle ready across the shooting sticks – could take a shot. That was the plan. Ten excruciatingly long minutes passed.

Slowly the feeding bull moved forward. First his head appeared, then his neck appeared; again and again he intently scanned his surroundings, twice looking directly at us.

Intense moments passed and our nerves strained to the maximum. He was feeding away from us now. Then he suddenly turned to a fresh young bush. This was the perfect moment. I covered my ears and the shot rang out. The bull went down with a perfect shot placed slightly high on the shoulder.

The heavy 400 grain Hornady bullet had proved its effectiveness. After the last brief convulsions the 800 kilogram bull was lying on his side. Cautiously we approached the bull, taking into account that after all he might just get up again and take off.

A ten-year old, very big eland bull, with a hardened horn base and 241 points had been bagged. After a heartfelt Waidmannsheil and breaking a twig we couldn’t wait to see, of course, whether the bullet had exited this heavy animal.

We tried to prop up the eland. Alexander was overwhelmed by its size and mass. The sheer weight of the neck was impressive and made it impossible for us to prop him up.

I left Alexander with his eland and went to get the hunting vehicle. Thanks to the strong winch we were able to pull the massive animal onto the back of the truck.

The total length of the bull exceeded the load space capacity by far. But with the tailgate, which served as a loading ramp, we were able to ‘fold’ him and bring him home in one piece.

This hunt was a special experience for me, too. At home the kids were very excited and pelted their father with questions. The winch at the slaughtering pole groaned under the weight of the bull. The bullet exit wound was nowhere to be found.

Down in the sandy omuramba below us, we came onto their spoor again; the wind was in our favour, and with the sun on our backs we started our stalk along a game trail. The camphor bushes down here were still dense and provided sufficient cover for us. Suddenly a movement some 200 yards away – we stopped dead in our tracks. The silhouette gave an eland away - peacefully browsing on a bush - but which one was it? We cautiously inched forward to maybe catch a glimpse of the second bull – all the while keeping an eye on the first one.

I knew that we had to get closer for a shot over open sights.

But we still could not see the second bull anywhere. He was as if lost without a trace.

Swallowed by the bush. Slowly,

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The biggest

AMONG THE SMALL ONES

Elephants, rhinos, lions, buffaloes and leopards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Big Five â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are the wildlife jewels of Namibia. Everything revolves around them, and the international public increasingly admires Namibia's ability to manage these heroes of the savannah, find solutions to the human-wildlife conflict, and yet allow them to be hunted within sustainable limits. But there are also other animals, smaller ones, supposedly unimpressive: the honey badger, for example. This spirited little fighter stands for many others that inhabit Namibia's wilderness and in their entirety make for the fascination of the Namibian fauna. Is the honey badger huntable? No! But that does not matter for a modern hunter who increasingly sees himself as a nature conservationist. He is happy when he can watch this animal. Which is not so easy, because it is mainly active at night and at dusk. Watch a honey badger and you will almost inevitably admire it. Immo Vogel

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ranted, I was damn lucky to be able to watch a honey badger for almost an hour in an extraordinary and exciting situation. Adventurous stories came to mind, of honey badgers that successfully fight a black mamba or even leopards and lions. Tall tales? Blooming imagination, I figured, and I would still think so if I had not seen the battle with my own eyes and captured it on camera.

It was last year – 2019, the terrible recordbreaking year of drought – on one of those mornings when you wondered if it really made any sense to go hunting. The game was suffering and you did not want to add to its distress. But our hunting farm Gross-Okandjou is also a farm like many others. The workers need meat. You promised. It is even written into their employment contracts. What choice do you have? I came up with a compromise.

I would go for a ride with my favourite horse, Lenz, and if I was lucky, I would bag something. So I grabbed my Mannlicher, my camera and a big bottle of water.

Horseback hunting is our speciality at GrossOkandjou. It does not mean, of course, that we shoot from the horse. We stalk on horseback and make good use of the advantage of getting closer to the game undetected. And probably it was that very advantage which gave me this unique experience. After a twohour ride in the blazing sun I felt it was time that Lenz and I took a break and a drink of water. We had seen gemsbok, but nothing suitable for the kitchen. Idly, but nevertheless as attentive as you invariably are in the bush, we headed towards the waterhole at our livestock post. As happens so often, Lenz was

first to prick up his ears. You have to take him seriously. But what I saw seemed perfectly normal: a female warthog with four strutting piglets. Just why were they so restless? Perhaps the leopard which lives up in the mountain was around somewhere. So I expected to spot a bigger cat and it took a little while before I recognised the little black devil. I quickly realised that I had happened upon a unique scene. The honey badger was obviously trying to snatch one of the piglets, and the mother tried to prevent that, of course. Cautiously I led Lenz to take cover in the shade and let him wait there. A well-trained western horse – Gross-Okandjou is Namibia's first Western Riding Ranch – can be left untethered at a place for hours. It will wait for you.

When I had found cover for myself, with the wind in my favour, I took a good look at what was going on in front of me. The honey badger, he couldn’t have been much more than 10-12 kg, tried again and again to get hold of one of the piglets. The sow did her best to fend him off, but eventually she seemed to become exhausted from the relentless attacks. And then something happened for which I still have no proper explanation. As if by command, a group of male warthogs of varying ages suddenly appeared on the scene and immediately took on the role of bodyguards. Now, I thought, it will get pretty tight for the little guy. Attack and retreat.

Attack and retreat. At some point, he would have to give up. I was sure of that. After all, he was totally outnumbered.

The honey badger, which now had all my sympathy, was repeatedly tossed into the air

and also had sustained some injury on the neck. No doubt it had to be over now. But he went back to the waterhole, took his time to drink and disappeared – or so I thought.

Instead, the uneven fight started all over again.

Almost an hour had passed when, just as suddenly as they had appeared on the scene earlier, the warthogs took off again as if by command. And the honey badger – as if he knew that he had an audience – managed to give the impression that he was driving them away. Actually he did, in a way. The pigs were running away and he chased after them.

Probably it would be exaggerated to claim that he was the clear winner of the day. More likely the warthogs were just fed up, which would of course be due of the badger’s incredible spunk. He somehow reminded me of German hunting dachshunds: small fighters with a fierce heart and a disturbed understanding of their own size, but oh, so cool. When the pigs were gone, the badger dug a small hollow for himself and dropped down to rest a little. I was able to sneak up to him to within just a few metres. Respect! Just plain respect!

Riding home in the walk I felt no need for a hunting success anymore. Somehow I also wanted to show some solidarity with the little black devil. After all, he had not caught anything. I had set out to hunt the watchful, proud gemsbok. Now my thoughts were elsewhere. Actually, I thought, the honey badger could just as well be Namibia’s heraldic animal instead of the gemsbok. The badger also symbolises the country’s pride and resilience. Especially in the devastating drought year of 2019!

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AFRICA in the heart â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mama, when will we go to Africa again?â&#x20AC;? Johannes asks, intently studying my face, while we are sitting at breakfast. I know that he eagerly anticipates my answer, that he has probably had this question on his mind for a while, without speaking about it, as holiday travel is always a big item on the family budget. But I also know that the adventure of faraway places is something our two sons always look forward to, and they never see it as a mere luxury trip. Recently Johannes and his brother Max had been raving about the previous trip to Africa, and we, the parents, had also been making plans for the next holiday. Ilka Dorn

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y husband Oliver and I only had to look at each other to give our kids an answer: “This coming fall!” Before we could say more we were interrupted by loud jubilation from our boys.

Since our trip to the Kalahari a few years ago we had built a friendship with professional hunter Volca Otto who ran Ondjiviro Hunting Safaris. The decision to choose a hunting destination in Africa was a foregone conclusion. A phone call later our plans were finalised; we wanted to go on a family hunting trip, which our sons would enjoy, too. As Volca has two sons himself, he knows what a hunter’s family needs and he is the perfect choice for us.

The remaining weeks until we leave for Namibia fly by. Volca picks us up at the airport, the reunion is heartfelt and soon we are on our way to Volca’s farm “Intu Africa”. After a few relaxing days hunting in the Kalahari we turn our attention towards the Khomas Hochland in the immediate vicinity of Windhoek.

The farm close to Windhoek used to be a cattle ranch, but for decades nobody has hunted in this area or managed it. Here you are able to experience truly wild hunting in Africa. The hunting area is fenced off only to the townlands of Windhoek, there is no barrier towards the hinterlands and mountains; game can move freely. This also means that you have to be prepared for anything and cannot expect everything: hunting in its truest form!

We drive on a rough gravel road through the hilly landscape. The road gets worse the further we go; the area seems lonely and deserted. We leave the car soon after we have passed the fence that protects the hunting area towards the townlands. It is a cloudy day, there was some rain in the night and the earthy smell of the first rain lingers in the air. The trees are just sprouting and we can only imagine how the surroundings will look when spring fully unfolds and the vegetation explodes.

Below a ridgeline a riverbed meanders through a dainty valley, green grass fields stretch to either side of the riverbed beneath tall trees: this will attract a lot of game. The lusher vegetation near the river is followed by open bushland which eventually changes into thick thorn bush.

Only when we have left the car behind we notice the special charm of this jungle-like landscape, the sounds are incredible. From all directions there is the barking of baboons, the amazing diversity of bird calls, the millionfold buzzing and chirring of insects and the grunting of warthogs. The kids are awestruck and Johannes says: “This is where the soundtrack of ‘Jurassic Park’ was recorded!”

Guinea fowl and francolin cross our path and disappear in the brush as we stalk along the lush meadow next to the riverbed. In single file we move through the grass, Volca stops every now and then to glass ahead. The game is perfectly camouflaged and very difficult to spot, and although there is very little hunting pressure here, the animals are extremely wary. Too late we spot a group of warthog which quickly disappears into the thick vegetation.

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Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris is proud to announce the acquisition of exclusive hunting rights on Namibia’s spectacular Waterberg Plateau, a 156-square-mile national park that frequently produces Africa’s largest Cape buffalo trophies. Moreover, unlike previous hunting operators who were limited to specific areas, the entire park will now be hunted. While most will come to Waterberg for huge Cape buffalo with an outside spread in the mid-to-upper 40s, Namibia’s best roans are also a heavy draw. Additional species include leopard, eland, giraffe and hunts for multiple Cape buffalo will also be offered on a limited basis. The quality of trophies, quantity of game and the wilderness setting combine to make Waterberg one of Africa’s finest safari destinations. Combining a safari there with Kaokoland, Caprivi or the Kalahari is certain to produce the hunt of a lifetime. Based on initial demand, it is advisable to reserve Waterberg dates two or even three years in advance.

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+264 81 737 6501 WWW.HUNTNAMIBIA.COM.NA info@jamyhunt.com

| www.jamyhunts.com

AFRICA IN THE HEART

We don’t really have any priorities set for us but Oliver would like to hunt for a mature warthog boar, while I would like to try for kudu. Both species occur in this area and after our unexpected encounter with the warthogs, Oliver shoulders the rifle. One never knows - we might just stumble upon a boar that is running late from a mud bath in the river.

We now move into a stony part of the riverbank. The view is getting worse as bushes and trees become more frequent on the grassy plains. Volca seems to have spotted something, but after a while lowers his binoculars again to continue stalking, just as Oliver taps on his shoulder. There must be something in those trees ahead! Volca immediately makes out the animal, I take a little longer. Unbelievable how well the game is camouflaged! Some 250 yards in front of us a big kudu bull is standing behind a tree, looking into our direction.

“Don’t move!” Volca hisses. We barely dare to breath. After a while the bull relaxes and we move into the cover of a bush. Volca explains the situation to us: the bull is old and big.

Usually one seldom has the luck to come across such a good bull this early on a stalk.

Oliver and I exchange a look, as he hands over the rifle to me.

Volca and I slowly stalk forward to a small ravine, while the rest of our group remains in the cover of the bush. Cautiously we make an approach to the kudu until we find a suitable shooting position 180 yards from the bull.

I get ready over the shooting sticks, the reticle rests on the massive body of the kudu, but he is not standing broadside yet. After what seems like an eternity he moves forward a few steps and halts. I breathe out and let fly.

I only realise the magnitude of the moment when Volca slaps me on the shoulder. Slowly we approach the kudu bull to ‘give him his last bite’, a German tradition which in this moment encompasses all the experiences of the past days here in Namibia.

Now we have to think about how to recover the meat, as the bull probably weighs around 600 pounds and is lying in the thickest brush. Eben, the older of the two trackers, leaves to fetch the hunting truck, while we gralloch the bull and remove the head and horns, so that we can drag the big animal closer to the truck. Although everybody gives

a hand it still takes us the better part of two exhausting hours to get the bull to the truck and load him for transporting him to the butcher in Windhoek.

"The game is perfectly camouflaged and very difficult to spot, and although there is very little hunting pressure here, the animals are extremely wary."

My husband Oliver later manages to bag a big blue wildebeest bull, bringing this incredible trip to a happy end on our last day of hunting.

Over a delicious dinner in cheerful company we bid farewell to Volca, whom we will hopefully be seeing again soon. And I already know that when we plan our next trip, our sons will ask: “Mama, when will we go to Africa again?”

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An old hunter’s dream I consider myself still a novice hunter although I was born in 1937 in a family with a long tradition of hunting whitetail deer in Wisconsin, USA. My father, grandfather and great grandfather hunted, but I came to hunting deer late in life when a colleague invited me to hunt on his big farm on the opening day of the annual Wisconsin November deer season in 1996. We hunted from improvised ground blinds. Taking my first deer, a big doe, at a hundred yards that morning was exciting. After that I returned year after year, eventually hunting on our own land. I shot some big deer in the ensuing years but never did any stalking or tracking. David Becker

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ooking for adventure late in my life, I read about a hunting farm called Sandveld located in the remote northeast of Namibia that offers a very different and unique hunting experience - hunting the eland on foot and in their natural habitat.

The terrain is flat and all sand. Walking on it is somewhat like walking on a dry beach, perhaps not as deep except for the vehicle tracks through the bush. I wouldn’t call them roads exactly, but tracks made by vehicles through long straight firebreaks or curving through the bush. The wind fills in the tracks somewhat, and game often follow the tracks or cross frequently leaving deep imprints.

“We must track,” says Allan Cilliers who considers hunting from a vehicle unethical. “Are you up to it?” Of course, I nod. This was going to be real hunting for me. We drove out on a sand track to look for fresh eland spoor when the sun was rising like a red ball through the grey bush. We stopped at waterholes, the sand around it carpeted with tracks and peppered with game droppings. Identifying and determining the age, figuring out the number of eland bulls from looking at the tracks amazed me. Andreas (not his traditional name), a Ju/hoansi tracker, a small-built man, distinct facial wrinkles, polite, observant lively brown eyes, points out the tracks with his decorative cane. His eyesight is phenomenal. In this wilderness, giraffe, gemsbok, hartebeest and kudu move through the bush. While tracking through the sand,

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blue wildebeest crossing the path and zebras trotting ahead became a familiar sight.

We weave through the bush in serpentine fashion, trying to avoid the Acacia thorn bushes. Those hook-like thorns rip into skin and hold fast to clothes as I soon found out, but I ignored it. Those thorns and the damage they did would be a reminder of this day, months later. Other brush we mainly pushed through silently, viewing fresh piles of eland dung that lay along the fresh tracks. They look like glistening piles of large black olives. Occasionally we would pick one up to squeeze open between thumb and forefinger and examine the moistness of its contents.

The land was flat, the pace a normal walking speed, with frequent pauses as Andreas listened. Cautiously, like predators, we crawled slowly, approaching the browsing eland silently. A bat-eared fox jumped out from a bush, stared at us intently, and then ran off. A Kori Bustard, the largest flying bird in Africa, casually walked across our path. What a sight! It was enormous. Then that familiar loud bark of a kudu breaks the silence of the African bush and with a noisy crashing of branches, the eland bulls disappear. Allan told me that many people believed the eland’s clicking sound is caused by the hooves, when the two halves clap against each other, but others say it is the tendon that snaps, when it slips over the animal’s knee joint. It sounds like castanets

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and can be heard for hundreds of metres.

The prevailing drought, which they say is the worst in a hundred years, means there is hardly any grass, and on top of that the absence of leaf cover at this time of year makes stalking a challenge. The bush is dense with no shooting lanes, no broadside shots and the alertness of other game intercepting our stalk limits our chances.So close, yet so far.

on the shooting sticks with Allan pointing in the direction, selecting a shooting lane. It is so challenging to find that shooting lane with sticks and branches in the way. We were spotted and the bulls were gone.

Sometimes I took too long to discern an eland in the bush 80 yards out for example. They are just too well camouflaged with their grey and brown colour. Allan had to coach me to look for the glistening horns waving above the shrub as they fed. Then look down for the head and the shoulder to aim and fire.

Allan and Andreas decided that it was worth to continue tracking them. What a good call because we came upon them once again 45 minutes later. Rifle back on shooting sticks.

I looked over my scope for the tree Allan pointed out. A bull was standing under that tree. Time stood still. Allan pointed at the form of an animal standing motionless behind a leafless yellow wood bush. It was huge, greybrown in colour, the sun glinting off its horns. I saw that distinct swaying motion of a dewlap. It was one of the huge eland bulls we were after. I aimed and fired! My memory is a bit blurry but I remember it leaping up and immediately the bush came alive and I watched two huge bulls burst out of the bush into the clearing and race across my vision from right to left. “Did I hit?”

Allan, right behind me, said “Reload!”.

We stalked two bulls for 45 minutes getting perhaps as close as 35 yards. I could see the big horns moving above the bush as one of them fed to the left. Allan whispered that he could see an opening the size of a pie plate and also his shoulder. To the right was a narrow opening in the bush and another big bull briefly walked through and disappeared to the left. Then he turned and poked its head out several times. “Take either one”, Allan whispers and I keep hoping that the bull would just step forward into the opening. But just then we were spotted out in the open with hardly any cover and I got a brief glimpse of big bodies stamping off through the brush.

Some time later we stalked a single bull, spending a long time watching it and moving around to select a shooting lane, shooting sticks ready. Allan motioning me to stay put behind brush as he and Andreas squatted down and peered around a bush. I was glad that Allan had not motioned me to squat down too, as my only physical problem is painful knees when kneeling. They whispered back and forth and came back to tell me the eland’s body was fully exposed, but it had only one horn!

I woke up early the next morning, mesmerized by everything I had learnt about hunting eland. I felt confident that this would be the day. We set off on fresh, inviting tracks following several bulls. Suddenly Andreas stopped and listened. There it was. That distinct sound of eland bulls feeding. The odd crack of breaking branches as they calmly fed.

I have some limited hearing loss and could hear them, barely, which meant they were close. Like second nature now, I put the rifle

It was getting late and our changes were getting less, because the bulls like to bed down after nine in the morning.

I paused to pick up my ejected souvenir cartridge and moved forward smiling and shaking hands with Allan and Andreas as we walked to the eland lying 60 yards out, apparently having crashed on the spot. It was a neck shot. Allan said to shoot it in the shoulder if it gets up, but that was not necessary. The bull had succumbed by the time we reached it. I was elated.

It was a fair chase hunt and we had worked for it! I had successfully returned to Namibia for the eland I desired.

The last memorable moment of the hunt was us resting in the African bush by a waterhole, when a zebra came into the clearing while a big male leopard stretched out at the water to my left, drinking for a long time, raising its head from time to time to look around.

Then it walked across the clearing to the right and stood behind a bush with its tail sticking out in an upward curve like a letter C. The zebra walked right by, ignoring the leopard.

Allan explained that leopards don’t attack fully grown zebra and that its belly was probably full. I sat motionless watching it through an opening in the bush until it disappeared.

Soon afterwards we heard a loud cough-like sound lasting about 10 seconds and Allan said that the leopard was marking its territory.

Like a ghost the leopard again appeared from behind a bush a mere 25 yards from us, and looked in our direction. I slowly raised my binoculars but then it spotted me and vanished. Not long afterwards a zebra headed out of the clearing walking directly towards us. We froze, remained motionless as it walked past within 15 feet, looked at us, then picked up its pace as it disappeared into the bush.

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Yours in conservation, Danene & Gysbert van der Westhuyzen

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NCE SPEAKS OUT

ON THE PRINCIPLES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE HUNTING PROFESSION The Namibian Chamber of Environment has come out in support of the role of hunting for conservation in Namibia and has been involved in the development of the Best Practice Hunting Guide initiated by NAPHA, one of the first associations that became a member of NCE.

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n a discussion paper the NCE posed the following question: Given the importance of hunting to conservation and the economy, why do some members of the professional hunting fraternity act in ways that put the sector at risk, and that play into the hands of the animal rights movement?

The NCE and its members do not support unethical hunting behaviour and believe that there are five fundamental principles that hunters should uphold if they are to be characterised as “professional” and be allowed to practice in Namibia. These are: 1. Ensure every hunt complies with the traditional fair chase, which involves the careful and responsible selection of individual animals – generally old bulls past their reproductive peak, and not necessarily those carrying the largest trophies; 2. Promote good conservation practice at all times with priority consideration of the status of species and the health of ecosystems; 3. Ensure high standards of animal welfare; 4. Adhere to the conditions (in word and spirit) set by the landowner or custodian of the land on which the hunt takes place; 5. Enhance the reputation of the hunting profession and the sustainable use sector.

These principles translate into five key areas of responsibility for hunters: 1. An obligation to respect the animal being hunted and its environment.

This includes responsible marksmanship, no undue suffering of the animal, responsibility to the industry after the hunt (not posting dead animals on social media, for example); 2. An obligation to the broader conservation of wildlife, biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes; 3. An obligation to the client to provide an ethical and true hunting experience; 4. An obligation to the landowner/custodian of the land to adhere to the conditions and agreement entered into and to practice the highest hunting standards; 5. An obligation to the hunting industry and the sustainable use sector to maintain and promote the highest code of conduct and ideals of the profession.

WHO IS THE NCE? The Namibian Chamber of Environment is a voluntary membership-based and membership-driven umbrella organisation established under Namibian Common Law to support and promote the interests of the environmental NGO sector and its work.

Its aspirational objectives are to conserve the natural environment, protect indigenous biodiversity & endangered species, promote best environmental practices and support efforts to prevent and reduce environmental degradation and pollution.

Important operational objectives of the 65-member organisation are to act as a consultative forum and support and advise the members on environmental matters as well as facilitate access to environmental information. www.n-c-e.org

Unprofessional behaviour feeds the narrative of those opposed to the sustainable use of biodiversity. Such unprofessional behaviour affects not only the hunting sector but also conservancies, wildlife ranches, conservation in general, the national economy, jobs and Namibia’s reputation. It is a national issue.

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NAMIBIA RAISES THE BAR FOR BEST PRACTICES IN HUNTING

Pressure on hunting in Africa is mounting, mostly generated by outside parties that portray hunting negatively using arguments based on animal rights, welfare and conservation. Much of this portrayal is based on misunderstandings (both deliberate and from ignorance), but it is further strengthened when unethical practices come to light and spread like wildfire on social media. Hunters and countries with substantial hunting industries need to respond to these issues rigorously by improving ethical standards and public understanding about the role of hunting. Gail Potgieter, Namibian Chamber of Environment

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he Namibian government recognises threats to hunting as threats to its strategies for sustainable development and conservation, which are based on maximising the value of native wildlife species to Namibian landowners and rural communities. Conservation organisations in Namibia also recognise the threat, as history has shown that sustainable use plays an important role in promoting wildlife-friendly land uses and habitat conservation throughout the country. Hunting professionals in Namibia agree with the above views and are furthermore concerned with providing a more accurate picture of their contributions to conservation for the global community.

Representatives of these three key stakeholders have therefore come together to develop the National Best Practice Guidelines for Conservation Hunting in Namibia. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), representing government, highlighted the need for these guidelines and provided the mandate and policy support for developing them. The Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE), representing conservation organisations, provides funding and guidance for compiling the guidelines.

The members of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) are offering technical input and key perspectives from the hunting sector.

This collaborative approach is one of the hallmarks of Namibian conservation and sustainable use that has contributed to its exceptional conservation record. One of the key objectives of the new Best Practice Guidelines is to redefine hunting in Namibia

by introducing the terms “selective hunting” and “conservation hunting”. This shifts the emphasis away from hunting solely for the purpose of obtaining trophies and towards hunting as a contributor to wildlife conservation. “Selective hunting” more accurately portrays what is currently known as trophy hunting, in that a particular individual from a game population is selected for the hunt based on its size and age. “Conservation hunting” is a broader term that includes harvesting animals for one’s own or commercial use, culling animals for management purposes and recreational hunting by Namibian citizens.

Along with defining practices that fall under the banner of conservation hunting in Namibia, the Best Practice Guidelines explicitly address hunting practices that do not meet the standard of conservation hunting. These include: 1) intensive farming of wildlife in small fenced areas that are kept as “predator free” as possible by the farmer; 2) breeding game species for unnatural features (e.g. colour variants or unusually large horns); 3) introducing non-indigenous (exotic) species for the purposes of hunting; 4) shooting captive-bred animals of any species; and 5) ‘put-and-take’ hunting whereby animals are released in an area just prior to hunting them.

The Guidelines in detail describe the hunting regulations stipulated nationally by MET and internationally by other bodies. They reach beyond adhering to legislation, however, and include many different ethical aspects of hunting, such as a Code of Conduct; a new points system for measuring trophies to

encourage hunting animals of post-breeding age; links between hunting, human-wildlife conflict and conservation research; and details about firearms, ammunition and other practices that improve animal welfare.

Hunters adhering to these conditions will thus be part of an integrated system of legislation and ethical standards that fits into Namibia’s conservation hunting strategy.

Finally, the Best Practice Guidelines include a range of topics relating to game management.

Covering both freehold and communal areas, this section looks at population monitoring techniques, quota setting systems, culling, translocation for live sale, and disease management. These ‘nuts and bolts’ of the wildlife industry are rarely fully understood by international hunting visitors, so this section will be of particular interest to them. It is also a handy resource for game managers who want to explore different aspects of the industry or explain to non-hunters how their management actions fit into the bigger conservation hunting picture.

This comprehensive set of Guidelines will function both as an objective standard and as a resource for everyone involved in the hunting industry in Namibia. Members of the Namibian hunting industry adopting these guidelines will be trailblazers by adhering to a gold standard that other countries will hopefully follow. The process of creating these Guidelines also sets an example for others, as MET, NCE and NAPHA demonstrate how government bodies, conservationists and hunters can work towards the common goal of defining and implementing best practices in hunting.

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DISCOVER NAMIBIA an unforgettable experience

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OUR WILDLIFE Immense herds of Hartmann zebra, oryx, blue and black wildebeest, springbok, kudus, red hartebeest, blesbok as well as giraffe, klipspringer, steenbok and many other animals will provide you with a unique hunting experience with accommodation in a five-star lodge.

Predators such as leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, black-backed jackal and caracal are often seen. Experience a unique hunting safari with us in our little paradise.

Contact person: Luis Barreras +264 81 33 77 536 | I.barreras@bartap.com.na | www.nagumbo.com

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CIC CONFERENCE LEADING THE WAY FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Panel discussion under the theme: Social media - Friend or enemy of conservation?

SUSTAINABLE USE INCREASES WILDLIFE Kirsty Watermeyer

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t a time when wildlife conservation appears to be at a crossroads, the 66th CIC General Assembly took place in Windhoek, Namibia, under the theme “Crossroads - Leading the Way for Wildlife Conservation”. Bringing together stakeholders from across the globe to share wildlife conservation successes and challenges, the CIC chose stories of best practices in Namibian conservation as a backdrop. As each speaker took to the podium, the visionary approach Namibia has taken in conservation became more acutely apparent to the audience.

The conference, hosted by Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism, served as a platform for workshop-style discussions and presentations on wildlife conservation successes, challenges and best practices in Namibia, Africa and across the world. The ultimate aim being to bring conservation efforts together onto a common path. At the opening ceremony, Namibia’s Minister Pohamba Shifeta spoke about deriving benefits from wildlife and how the sustainable use of wildlife is the future for conservation in Namibia.

Namibia’s pioneering approach to conservation through the CBNRM communal conservancy programme and a closely regulated quota system that allows for sustainable wildlife use, was a common thread and was regularly shared as an example of a successful working model for sustainable use. While not without its challenges, it was clear that successes outweigh the challenges. This was also noted in the discussion around the different approaches to wildlife use across Africa. Most sub-Saharan African countries promote sustainable use.

North Africa does not. Repeatedly the discussions came back to the results of these two differing approaches as seen in wildlife numbers, showing great losses in North Africa and substantial increases in southern Africa.

Another example of the importance of rural community involvement in conservation was highlighted when it was noted in the panel discussion on ‘Solutions to wildlife challenges at a community level’ that communities who live with wildlife have significant impact on conservation successes or failures and that, if the right to wildlife is taken away from communities, negativity towards conversation increases. As Rose Mandisodza-

Hon. Minister Pohamba Shifeta Danene van der Westhuyzen

Chikerema (Chief Ecologist, Zimbabwe National Parks) stated, rural communities are the primary stakeholders when it comes to wildlife conservation.

An example is Namibia’s Salambala Conservancy where zebra, African wild dog and even ostriches have returned after the establishment of the conservancy. This is attributed to the fact that conservancies give people an incentive to look after wildlife and in return wildlife numbers increase, sometimes dramatically.

Yet, as Julian Blanc (Senior Wildlife Programme Manager, Global Wildlife Unit, UNEP) noted, habitat loss is still the biggest threat to species, specifically changes in land use with losses attributed to urban expansion and over-harvesting. The clear line between wildlife conservation and human development further emphasised the critical need for collaborative and sustainable best practises.

From the defined failure of foreign nations imposing conservation directives on Africa, to the way in which sustainable use is communicated, it was clear that some perspectives need to be changed.

NAPHA President Danene van der Westhuyzen called for hunters to take responsibility when it comes to matters relating to conservation as it is the rightful role of humans to participate in nature.

Conservationist Shane Mahoney outlined in his keynote speech, entitled ‘Putting Conservation First,’ the perception that hunters kill animals, and by implication this is bad. Yet, as he noted, butchers are respected members of the community, even though they also kill animals.

Mahoney believes the reason for this discrepancy is that the general public is not convinced that hunters put conservation first, because hunters don’t share their stories in the right way.

Edmond Blanc Prize awarded to the Nyae Nyae Conservancy and stakeholders

For more info: www.cic-wildlife.org/2019/05/04/ crossroads-africa-day-state-of-wildlife-conservation-inthe-continent-3-may-2019/

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HOW MANY LEOPARDS ARE THERE in Namibia?

Understanding the science, countering the critics

Dr Louisa Richmond-Coggan completed a national leopard study in March 2019 after 18 months of collating and analysing data from all over Namibia. This study was treated with extreme prejudice on social media even before it began, and detractors continue to question it now that the final report is published.

The question is, are these criticisms valid? Is there any evidence that this study tried to overestimate leopard numbers or otherwise misrepresent the results to appease the hunting industry? Gail Potgieter

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he most recent and detailed criticism (read: long rant on Facebook) comes from Dr Pieter Kat who runs a charity called Lion Aid. As a biologist who has specialised in large carnivore conservation, I found Dr Katâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s argument to be a breath-taking mixture of cherry picking, totally misunderstanding the study and extreme bias against hunting. I will focus on his main arguments against the report and explain where he goes wrong.

His first issue is that three of the 14 organisations that helped fund the project are hunting clubs and associations (Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA), Safari Club International and Dallas Safari Club). Most of the earliest critics of this project decided that the studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s results were invalid before it even started, simply by noting that NAPHA provided some core funding. The remaining 11 sponsors are from the Namibian corporate sector.

The detractors also fail to mention the involvement of the Namibian Chamber of Environment (NCE, an umbrella body representing 65 environmental NGOs in Namibia) and several of its member organisations that do carnivore research, along with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). All of these entities promote evidence-based conservation management and would not allow special interest organisations to influence research findings or outcomes.

The prejudice shown towards this study is concerning on a number of levels: 1) that Dr Richmond-Coggan was assumed to be a biased and unethical scientist before even starting the project; 2) that people would prefer leopards not to be studied at all due to lack of funding rather than allow hunters to fund research; 3) that anti-hunters assume that hunters want to drive their

quarry to extinction by rigging research results; 4) that the non-hunting funders and carnivore conservationists would contribute or allow their names to be associated with biased research. As a non-hunting conservation biologist I am saddened to see so little public trust in independent scientists. I also feel that hunting should fund conservation research; it makes no sense for hunters to rig research results and thus endanger their own industry.

Despite claiming that the research was biased towards the hunting sector, Dr Kat happily uses some of the results from the report that do not put the industry in the best light.

Prior to changes in how leopard hunting was managed in Namibia in 2011, hunting leopards with dogs was allowed and females could be taken as trophies. During the period 2005-2009, more leopards were hunted than in any other period; nearly 300 were taken in 2008, well above the quota of 250.

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HOW MANY LEOPARDS ARE THERE IN NAMIBIA? Furthermore, three individuals weighing only 15 kg were hunted during 2002-2008.

If this study was meant to make the hunting industry or the government look good, these details would have been omitted.

The only bias I can see here is in Dr Kat’s critique – while highlighting the shortcomings of the leopard hunting system prior to reforms in 2011, he fails to mention how the system has improved. Hunting with dogs was banned and female leopards may no longer be hunted, resulting in the average weight of a hunted leopard increasing from 44 kg in 2001 to 63 kg in 2017. Since 2011 only 27% of the leopard hunts in Namibia are successful and the quota of 250 per year has not been reached in any year.

This shows that the Ministry of Environment and Tourism has responded to the problems in the hunting system, and will likely continue to improve the system based on recommendations in the 2019 report. Dr Kat demands that Namibia “completely revise all leopard trophy hunting guidelines”, yet somehow fails to mention the previous improvements or current recommendations. This reveals that he has no interest in improving hunting management, only in banning it altogether.

The leopard study also revealed the real threat to leopards in Namibia: being killed by farmers in response to livestock or game losses. Once again, Dr Kat picks up on this information, yet fails to mention the clear link found between trophy hunting and increased farmer tolerance for leopards. The questionnaire survey of 392 farmers did indeed reveal that 55% of them kill leopards without applying for a permit, but it also showed that trophy hunting was one of the reasons why farmers tolerate leopards on their farms. Some farmers even stated that they would remove most or all of the leopards from their land if trophy hunting were banned.

Finally, Dr Kat seems to not understand how the final estimate for leopard numbers in Namibia was reached. First, he decides that six camera trap studies are actually three because there were two each (separated by several years) in three locations. These repeated studies in specific areas were used specifically to investigate trends in the leopard population over time. Next, he ignores the point that these studies were not the only ones that

contributed to the national leopard estimate.

A number of other organisations working in Namibia use camera traps, tracks (“spoor”) and tracking collars to estimate leopard numbers in different parts of Namibia. Dr Richmond-Coggan obtained this information by asking these organisations for their data (in cases where it was not yet published) or including results from the published scientific articles and reports they produced.

These detailed studies in different parts of Namibia provided leopard densities in their study areas, but not even these were enough to provide a national estimate. Specifically, they don’t tell us if there are any leopards in non-studied areas. For this we need to include as many leopard sightings as possible from all available sources. The Leopard Project thus collated tourist sightings reported through the Environmental Information Service (EIS), sightings and photos provided by farmers and hunters, answers from their farmer questionnaire survey and MET records of where leopards are killed (either as problem or trophy animals).

The detailed studies tell us what makes good leopard habitat, while the other data points show us where leopards occur throughout large parts of Namibia. These datasets are then entered into a computer model to paint a picture of leopard density and distribution for the country. The model basically identifies what features of a particular area are most (or least) favourable for leopards and then looks for these features in the bigger landscape. For example, we know from detailed studies that leopards prefer mountainous terrain, and we know that people have seen leopards in certain parts of the Kunene Region. The model takes that information and predicts how many leopards we are likely to find in the mountainous parts of the Kunene Region. These predictions are made more accurate when we add other leopard density predictors like rainfall, the presence of dry riverbeds (where leopards like to hunt) and land use.

The computer model crunches the numbers and spits out its “best guess”, along with a standard error. In this report, the “best guess” is 11,733 leopards and the error is 5,494. This means that while the actual number of leopards may not be exactly 11,733, it has a 95% chance of falling between 5,784 and 17,227. Dr Kat tries to discredit the estimate by pointing

out the large range between maximum and minimum, but this is not unusual for an estimate that covers an area the size of Namibia.

He further reveals an astonishingly poor understanding of basic statistics by claiming that there is a 95% chance that the population is exactly 5,784. If that were the case, then it would be a very accurate estimate indeed!

One of the key findings of the Project (conveniently ignored by Dr Kat) is that leopard records were found from south-eastern Namibia, where they were thought not to occur in 2011. It is likely that the leopards have always been here, but the 2019 study was able to tap into the EIS and more sources of data in this region than the previous study. The 2019 results also adjusted the predicted leopard density in north-eastern Namibia from “high” to relatively low based on new data, which was one of the main reasons why this estimate was lower than the 2011 estimate of 14,154 leopards.

The new estimate does not necessarily indicate that there are fewer leopards in Namibia today than there were in 2011, only that we now know more about their numbers and distribution. Dr Richmond-Coggan took this into account, along with the improved hunting system and the link between hunting and farmer-leopard conflict when recommending that the quota of 250 leopard trophy permits per year remain unchanged. Freehold farms support more leopards than national parks in Namibia, so the most important leopard conservation action is to incentivise farmers to live with leopards – trophy hunting is one of those incentives.

Dr Pieter Kat’s criticism of Namibia’s national leopard study has backfired spectacularly. While claiming that the author of the report is biased, he reveals his own bias by cherry picking parts of the report that support his argument while ignoring results that don’t suit him. While dismissing the report as not “scientific” enough, he shows a total lack of understanding of scientific methods and statistics used to estimate carnivore populations. Fortunately, Namibia bases its leopard management system on reports using sound scientific methods and the best available data rather than Facebook rants.

For more info: www.napha-namibia. com/news-events/news-single-view/ artikel/the-namibian-leopard/

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Whenever it mattered, Volker Grellmann had a big heart and a fine sense of humour.

Whereby I have never seen him burst out in laughter, but very often seen him smile delightedly or briefly chuckle to himself.

In Memoriam:

Many years later, the essential clashes lay behind us, Volker had become Ombudsman of NAPHA – an appointment which until his death he performed with great diligence and always in the best interest of the association and of hunting.

VOLKER GRELLMANN

O

n 29 September 2019 the memorial service for Volker Grellmann, the “grand old man of NAPHA“, founding member and longstanding president of the Professional Hunting Association, who had recently passed away, was held in the Christus Church in Windhoek. Everybody who somehow could arrange it, even if it meant tackling a long stretch of road, took the occasion to honour and pay final tribute to a widely respected personality.

When a day later the publisher of Huntinamibia asked me to contribute an obituary on Volker Grellmann for this edition of the magazine, I requested a day to think it over, as I was not sure whether I am the right man for this task. Because, in spite of our long acquaintance, we were not always on the best of terms.

Volker Grellmann was a seasoned pro, he was an extremely well-connected President of NAPHA and a world-renowned PH when I, a colleague twenty years his junior, spoke up for the allocation of big game concessions in Namibia via public tender at the beginning of the 1990s. Therefore the one or other conflict was inevitable. But eventually I gladly agreed and I want to contribute the following on the stages of a forty-year acquaintance, and of our mutual path within the Namibian Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) as well as this selection of photos to the memory of a great personality.

When with the words “who has done him wrong may now ask him for forgiveness and whom he has done wrong may now forgive

58

him” the pastor requested the Christian community during the memorial service to rise and commemorate the deceased, my lips, after a brief self-communion, involuntarily curled into a silent little smile; a good, warm, respectful smile.

The position of Ombudsman of NAPHA – this shark pool of alpha males – required enormous worldly wisdom, a happy hand with problem-solving and comprehensive knowledge of the hunting industry and its intricacies, qualities which Volker possessed in an outstanding way and which allowed him to be the one constant factor of “his association”, looked up to by his younger colleagues and appreciated by the old hands.

I still went to school, it may have been sometime around 1977/8, when I met Volker Grellmann in person for the first time. At that time I was looking after the farm of my older brother near Steinhausen and Grellmann was considering accommodating clients of his ANVO Safaris company on that farm. This first encounter still remains vivid in my memory.

Grellmann, good-looking, tall and imposing and in many ways the role model of a PH, had brought along an Italian client and, should opportunity present itself, would have liked to also shoot something.

To show him around we drove along the border between the two farms, when on the other side, at the edge of a thicket on the neighbouring property, stood a big kudu bull, which had not yet noticed us because of the strong wind. For a while we studied the bull through our binoculars with growing desire, the Italian expressed his evident interest in the big trophy and Grellmann regretted that the bull was not standing on our side, when in youthful ebullience I offered to take a little stroll onto the neighbouring property, surround the bull and push him over onto our side.

It may have been in 1999 when I gave a small presentation at a NAPHA workshop on the topic of “exotic game and fences”, which provoked severe criticism by colleagues, so much so that perhaps I would not have ventured onto the public platform again, if Volker Grellmann hadn’t taken the floor and announced that in his youth he had been a soul mate of mine, a statement to which – as to pour oil on the troubled waters of the Association – he characteristically added that unfortunately, however, one has to accept certain realities.

Grellmann put down his binoculars and looked into my eyes in fleeting temptation but then shook his head, while a slight smile was playing around his lips.

This is important for a better understanding of a good, strong Association, which stands for free expression of opinion.

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My purist attitude in all matters hunting from now on led to increasing polarisation and tension within the Association, and even during my own presidency in the years 2012 to 2016 to an attempt by members to eliminate my influence. It also has to be mentioned, however, that at the said workshop not only Volker, but also Friedhelm von Seydlitz, who not necessarily always shares my views, spoke up in my defence, and during tea break Gudrun Heger urged me to address these things over and over again, “no matter how much criticism you get!”

A lifetime of service: Nevertheless, in 2005 I felt compelled to cancel my membership in the Association in dismal disappointment. I do not mention this to elaborate in any way on the internal turmoil, which this step brought about and which in a decisive way was also calmed by Volker.

But shortly after I had cancelled my membership, I received a fax from the NAPHA Office with a handwritten note, which read: “Hombre!

Please call me.

Regards Volker” This form of address, “Hombre”, in its many-layered meaning and purport, warmed my heart at a point of time of big, disappointed emotions. The exclamation mark was painted somewhat thicker in ink and I cannot help but imagine that in doing so he must have mused momentarily, smiling.

Like no wink of an eye, smile or other encouraging gestures, which Volker knew to use well, this has created a bond between us.

As I grew older we were always of one mind along general lines, any disparities were limited to the interpretation of the narrow line separating realism from idealism, and Volker no longer spoke about having been my “soul mate in his younger years”, he now repeatedly and

readily called me his soul mate. I feel honoured by this.

On the occasion of his seventieth birthday the AgriForum Magazine published a tribute to him, which also included a photo of Volker, holding a little warbler in the palm of his hand. Until then I had not known that we were born under the same constellation of stars. In a short congratulatory letter I told him “…a strong photo. Like God-father with his creature.” Perhaps like no other, this photo of that great hunter embodies the love of a hunter for animals and for nature.

After the tragic fatal accident of Frank Heger, and now the passing of Volker, NAPHA has lost another supporting pillar within a short time.

The legacy which Volker leaves behind is an unwavering commitment to ethical principles of hunting, not only sustainable – but more importantly – the respectful utilisation of natural resources, which should not be overridden by a materialistic approach, and the irrefutable principle that true love for creatures and for nature have to be the necessary basic elements of a hunter’s character. And that everyone has to commit to the bigger picture and the greater community beyond one’s own interests in this profession – something Volker lived by like perhaps no other.

“Hombre, soul mate, rest in peace”.

Kai-Uwe Denker

Founding Member of NAPHA* Namibia Professional Hunting Association 1974 NGC SWA National Game Committee) 1980 FENATA Federation of Namibian Tourism Association) APHA* African Professional Hunters Association SWAPH+G CANAM* Conservancy Association Namibia BOD NATH* Namibian Academy/Training in Hospitality NAMATANGA Conservancy* Proprietor of ANVO Hunting Safaris* since 1970 ERHS “Eagle Rock” Hunting School since 1974 Etango Ranch 1996 ERPHAN* “Eagle Rock” Professional Hunting Academy Namibia since 2000 Etango Ranch Guest Farm 2003 President of NAPHA Namibia Professional Hunting Association 1983 - 1991 Vice President of FENATA Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations 1992 - 1997 IPHA International Professional Hunters Association NGC National Game Committee of Namibia 1989 - 1990

Master Measurer for * SCI appointed 1992 Advisor to KXOE’s Chief’s Council Western Caprivi appointed 1992 - 1998 Recipient of SCI - Outstanding International Hunters Award 1995 IPHA - Recognition Award 1995 SCI - Presidents Award 1997 NAPHA – Conservation Award 2005 CCF – Cheetah Conservation Award 2006 Committee member & Chair of NAPHA Ethics, Leopard Committee* Big Game Committee; Safaricare; Namibia Wildlife Bill* NAPHA Ombudsman*Since 2000 *Honorary Life Member of NAPHA* Namibia Professional Hunting Association *Life Member of -SCI Safari Club International IPHA International Professional Hunters Association APHA African Professional Hunters Association

Past President of SCI – Safari Club Africa Chapter 1997

Board Member of Safaricare Big Game Committee.

Managing Director of SWA Safaris & ANVO (Pty) Ltd 1974

Other Memberships DSC; HSC; Game Coin International PHASA; Namibia Agricultural Union Seeis Farmers Association Namibia Scientific Society

Chairman of Damaraland Safaris (1978 - 1984 Namatanga Conservancy 2006-2012 Chairman & BOD* of NATH Namibian Academy/ Training in Hospitality 2007

Volker Grellman (middle) at the height of his fame as a big game hunting operator with PH Dough Stevenson (right) and his client Hanley Sayers in Bushmanland 1989 with one of the four 90 pounder elephant bulls taken by an ANVO Safaris client.

Measurer for Rowland Ward appointed 1979

Hon Game Warden for SWA Nature Conservation 1975 - 1990

*Ministry of Environment & Tourism Licenses for Professional Hunter* Big Game Professional Hunter Mentor *till his death

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Rewarding the passionate commitments of Namibia's

Black Rhino Custodians E

very successful project involves collaboration, commitment and passion. The driver of a project has the important role to initiate and ignite the passion and to get the right players together to collaborate and commit to the collective goal. But ultimately the success depends on passionate people who drive the process and continue doing so regardless of the obstacles and setbacks.

26 years after NAPHA introduced the Conservationist of the Year Award, and in Namibia’s 30th year of independence, the honour goes to a group of dedicated citizens: the Black Rhino Custodians. 28 Namibian landowners who now look after about 500 of Namibia’s black rhino took on this responsibility for no other reason than to ensure that the population thrives and expands. The animals and their offspring on these farms remain the property of the State.

Namibia today boasts the world’s largest free-roaming black rhino population. Eleven black rhinos were introduced to two free-hold farms in 1993. Since then the total size of the land which supports this programme has grown from 29,300 to 826,000 hectares. A major achievement for the programme came about when four rhinos were relocated to the deep south of Namibia in 2009.

The custodianship programme also includes communal conservancies. Nine years after the introduction of the programme, Uukwaluudhi Conservancy joined and another ten have followed since. The translocation in 2004 became

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CONSERVATIONISTS OF THE YEAR 2020 big news in the conservation world, because it was a remarkable achievement for protected animals to be moved from national parks to communal land, thus transferring the responsibility to the people who live on the land.

Birgit Kötting, recipient of this award in 2013, has been working as manager of the programme since 2006, and on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism congratulates the Custodians on the honour bestowed on them with this award. The Namibian government is forever indebted to the Black Rhino Custodians for the contribution they have made towards the conservation of Namibia’s iconic black rhino over the past decades, especially in light of the ever-increasing threat of poaching that has already hit many of the Custodians and affected them in ways they would never have thought possible.

When the programme was introduced in 1993 the main goals were to reintroduce the black rhino to its historical range and to increase its numbers in Namibia to 2000 animals (Vision 2030 for black rhino), and to create a monitoring and protection network that extended beyond the national parks. This programme, which falls under the Directorate of Wildlife and National Parks, as well as Scientific Services in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, has value on a global level, since it provides scientific research possibilities in a wide range of habitats. Black rhino currently roam a total area of more than four million hectares all over Namibia.

WANT TO BECOME A CUSTODIAN? • • • • •

You must own your land, or be a majority shareholder Your land must be game-fenced Not smaller than 10 000 ha of continuous land Finances must be sound You must agree that the rhinos remain State property

What does MET consider before granting your wish: Is this land right for rhino: is the land suitably fenced, are there enough water points, is the habitat suitable, is your management of the land appropriate and is the security of the property adequate.

The Rhino Technical Advisory Group advises the Rhino Management Committee, which then makes the final decision. Upon approval, the animals are translocated within a year or two, depending on the capture programme.

Rhinos are dehorned before translocation and if you can carry the cost, radio or satellite collars can also be fitted to facilitate initial monitoring of the animals.

Usually six rhinos are established on a new property: three males and three females. One male will be older to take over the role of the breeding bull, while the other five animals will be younger to give the population a chance to settle before breeding commences.

Whenever possible, rhinos are translocated veld to veld to minimise stress. But if the habitat of the donor is vastly different to the new home, boma training is required.

The cost of building the boma and providing support for training people to look after the animals while they are acclimatising in the boma, will be for your account.

And that is not the end: Once the animals are released on your land, you have to ensure that there are temporary water points along the fences, until the rhinos become familiar with the permanent water points on the farm.

Custodians must ensure that the animals are not disturbed soon after their release and that later on they are monitored regularly to determine the state of their health and whether they are settled, have started breeding or calving.

The onus lies on the custodians to ensure that fences are secure and to take over responsibility for antipoaching activities. Where a custodian cannot fulfill the obligations of the custodianship, MET can be approached for assistance.

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COMPULSORY BALLISTIC TESTING Dr Jürgen Hoffmann

A

research paper on Small Arms Control and Crime in Namibia, released in November 2017, revealed that the new Firearms Draft Amendment Bill includes a section that makes ballistic testing obligatory for all privately owned firearms.

The bill was tabled in the National Assembly in August 2019. It authorises the Inspector General of the Namibian Police to compel any licensed firearm owner and gun dealer to present all firearms, together with ammunition, for a ballistic test or any other tests considered to be necessary.

Similar laws on compulsory ballistic testing were introduced in the US states of Maryland and New York following a call from interest groups that all new handguns needed to be test-fired and the ballistic profile registered in a system that allows comparison with cartridge cases and/or projectiles recovered as exhibits from crime scenes. The Integrated Ballistic Information System (IBIS) is commonly used. It is an automated ballistics imaging and analysis system that utilises a computerised database of digital ballistic images of bullets and casings obtained from crime guns.

LIMITED SCIENTIFIC BASE Klatzow rejects preventative ballistic testing on the following grounds: •

•

•

•

In 2005 a Maryland State Police report recommended that the law be repealed, because at a cost of US$ 2.5 million the system had not produced any meaningful contribution to solve criminal cases. The Maryland system was finally discontinued in 2015 due to its ineffectiveness.

•

Another system, the New York Combined Ballistic Identification System (COBIS), was abandoned in 2008 as it cost US$ 4 million per year, yet had not produced any hits leading to prosecutions in its seven years of operation.

•

While some forensic scientists claim that the IBIS system is effective in a preventative capacity and will contribute to solving criminal cases, others argue that the success rate is in no relation to the costs involved.

South African ballistician Dr David Klatzow published his research findings in a book titled “Defective Science” (2017) where he exposed the limitations of preventative ballistic fingerprinting as opposed to using the method on recovered exhibits only.

•

Firearms do not always leave unique markings on the ammunition which is fired from them. One brand of ammunition can produce different striations. A different brand of ammunition can yield a different match.

The practice of comparative ballistic science is highly subjective and provides ample opportunity for bias. Tool mark comparison still requires interpretation and some images are so indifferent that they don’t offer any tangible pointers for identification that can be used without reasonable doubt.

The ballistic fingerprint of a firearm can be changed by using simple procedures and common materials. The microscopic tool marks on the breech face and the barrel lands can be altered making it impossible to match the recovered case or bullet to those on record.

The ballistic fingerprint of a firearm can change over its lifespan. The working surfaces of a firearm are prone to wear and tear. As a result the established profile can change completely.

An effective national ballistic imaging database is not feasible, as the variables of ballistic fingerprinting are too large.

Weapons from the same production run often produce similar tool marks that cannot be distinguished on a level that is scientifically sound.

The possibility of false matches multiplies with the size of the ballistic imaging database. The Maryland system produced a huge number of results for a single cartridge case, implicating persons not involved in any crime. This raises the spectre of miscarriage of justice, particularly among the poorest of the poor.

The cost-to-benefit ratio of a national ballistic imaging database is exceptionally high. When the data submitted by 206 ballistic laboratories was analysed it turned out that the success rate to identify a firearm from the IBIS data bank is around 0.16%. The equipment cost alone amounts to US$ 12 000 per matched cartridge case and US$ 195 000

for a matched bullet, making the system too expensive and unreliable as a crime solving tool.

SEMI-AUTOMATIC WEAPONS ONLY The ballistic systems mentioned were run on handguns only, as these are the weapons primarily used in crime. The Office of the Inspector General in the USA commented on the limitations of the Maryland experience in 2005. The North Carolina State Crime Laboratory, which compares ballistic results obtained from crime exhibits with data in the IBIS system, therefore limits its tests to hand gun and military cartridges that have been fired from semi-automatic weapons. Revolvers and any other rifles are not accepted for IBIS entry, and neither are any exhibits older than a year as such results are not scientifically sound.

Another prominent reason why preventive ballistic testing has failed is that large stockpiles of illegal guns from war theatres around the world are used to commit crimes. Those are not captured in the IBIS system until such time that they are recovered as crime exhibits. The success rate of ballistic testing thus depends largely on “what” information is fed into the system “when”.

Preventative ballistic testing is ineffective and unaffordable. At a current cost of N$ 2227 per firearm tested at the Namibian Forensic Science Institute, the cost of testing the present civilian stockpile will be in excess of N$ 6 billion.

Personnel and data storage facilities need to be significantly bolstered to handle the volumes resulting from such an exercise.

HUNTING RIFLES INCLUDED The Draft Bill requires a firearm ballistic test from any person who is a licence holder.

This, by definition, includes all international trophy hunters. To administer a ballistic test locally takes up to 28 days, which by far exceeds the time foreign hunters have available for a safari. It would potentially destroy the Namibian hunting industry. No other country imposes similar conditions, and others will then have the edge in attracting foreign hunters and their capital. This will have farreaching consequences for the survival of rural communities in Namibia.

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NATURE AWARENESS PROJECT

Let’s show our children the wonder of nature Hunters Support Education – NAPHA

“We spent a whole week in the field learning about the different trees and plants and their natural uses and we also learnt how to track animals.”

W

e want our children to learn about nature, to sleep under the stars, to hear the sound of a jackal, share thoughts around the campfire. To realise how fortunate they are to still have so much wilderness in Namibia and to become aware of their responsibility to conserve it. We also want to equip our children with the correct information regarding Namibia’s stand on the sustainable use of our natural resources and why it is crucial for the future of species and biodiversity. We want to be able to defend Namibia’s policies and boast about their successes. One would think that children who grow up in Namibia would know all these things, or at least be close to nature. But sadly, that is not the case. And until such time that school curricula include this, it is the responsibility of those who feel passionate about it, to make it happen.

Hunter’ Support Education is a NAPHA programme that supports educational projects, funded through NAPHA medal sales and donations from international organisations and trophy hunting clients.

The HSE Committee, which in the past mostly supported rural schools with equipment, initiated a nature awareness programme for Namibian high school children during holidays. Isabelle Fourie has developed and tested the programme since 2014. It will be presented at local schools and rolled out throughout the country with the support of NAPHA members.

Feedback from children who grow up in the city and had the opportunity to experience these adventures are heart-warming. The photographs here were taken on one of the first pilot projects with a group of students aged 16 and 17 years from the Waldorf School in Windhoek.

“This trip was great, especially for us kids who live in town. Everyone learnt how to survive and we appreciate nature more than before. We also bonded with our classmates in a way we never thought we could.”

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Initials

Operation Name

International Tel Code +264 (0)

International Tel Code +264 (0) Agenbach Ahrens Alberts Arnold

EJ EG CJ WJ

Badenhorst

C

Aru Game Lodges P48 RW Rowland Hunting Safaris Hunters Pride Taxidermy P64 Wildacker Tourism (Pty) Ltd t/a Wildacker Guestfarm Farm Mimosa

81 852 4519 81 124 6464 62 570 141 (49) 170 994 1333 (27) 82 829 6565 81 268 4354

Bahr

HJ

Wewelsburg Camping & Safari

Bank Barreras Garcia Reboredo Bartlett Barz

J LG

Oshingulu Hunting Safaris 81 124 1389 Na-Gumbo Lodge & Safaris P52 81 337 7536

oshi@africaonline.com.na l.barreras@bartap.com.na

DD PA

Onguma Game Ranch (Pty) Ltd Rechtsanwalt Barz

etoshajagd@iway.na pb@rechtsanwalt-barz.de

Basson

D

Basson Bastos

JM JL

Acacia Marketing cc t/a Acacia Namibia Osprey Safaris Namibia Khomas Safaris & Guestfarm

81 778 3262 (49) 179 243 8016 81 124 2070 81 127 9395 81 129 1936

info@ospreyhunt.com kukibastos@afol.com.na

Bauer Baumann

AK H

Aigamas Hunting

81 253 0947 81 129 3573

Beukes Binding Blaauw Blauwkamp

BF HW H JN T

Keerweder Safaris Kataneno Cattle & Game Ranch Dzombo Hunting Safaris Dallas Safari Club

81 206 0251 81 128 3695 81 146 4959

bauer@iway.na hbaumann@nubibmountain. com keerweder@iway.na bindings@iway.na japsie86@gmail.com tblauwkamp@superior-sales. com

Böckmann Böhmcker Bohn Boshoff Botes Botha Brand Brand

H AD KH B R RA JJ JP

Farm Rudelsburg Moringa Safaris Kleepforte Duiker Safaris Namibia Zana Botes Safaris CC Sesembo Hunting Safaris Getaway Kalahari Safari Nhosab Hunting Safari

Cooper Cordes

81 270 9511 81 241 5600 81 356 4080 81 255 7161 81 127 3976 81 396 3988 81 260 3355 81 124 8925 / 81 802 0120 U Kous Hunting Farm 81 129 0649 JJ Africa Hunt Safari 81 148 6807 G MW 81 271 8696 AC Huntafrica Namibia P54 81 127 3711 JW Huntafrica Namibia P54 81 127 3700 AD Allan Ciliers Hunting Safaris P66 81 129 0708 WA Allan Ciliers Hunting Safaris P66 81 236 5012 KP Okosongoro Safari Ranch 81 731 1532 FJ Otjandaue Hunting Safaris 81 436 3058 J Conservation Force (1) 504 837 1233 ZD Mahonda Hunting Safaris 81 272 4910 CH Bodenhausen 81 127 2946

Cramer

AG

Namibia Hunting Experience

81 129 0370

de Bod Deloch Deloch Delport

DW HG HP J HT

Dirk de Bod Safaris Namibia P6 Hans Hunt Safaris Oryxhunt Toekoms Hunting Safaris

81 124 0838 81 261 4825 81 243 1866 81 269 0116

Delport Denk

PJ HC

Eintracht Jagd Safaris Jagdfarm Mecklenburg P72

81 127 3832 81 129 0109

Bräuer, Dr Brits Brüsselbach Chapman Chapman Cilliers Cilliers Clausen Coetzee Jackson III

info@arugamelodges.com info@geva-sales.com huntpride@iway.na arnold-erbach@t-online.de chris@farmmimosa.co.za bahrcamp@afol.com.na

dietlind@acacianamibia.com

moringa@iway.na kleepforte@afol.com.na bennieboshoff918@gmail.com zanabotes@gmail.com ruan@sesembohunting.com info@kalahari-safari.com nhosab@gmail.com ubrauer@iway.na justus@afrihuntsafaris.com guidomwb@gmail.com info@huntafrica.com.na info@huntafrica.com.na allan@cillierssafaris.com wayne@cillierssafaris.com info@okosongoro.com otjandaue@iway.na JJW-NO@att.net info@mahondahunting.com cordesbodenhausen@gmail. com info@namibia-huntingexperience.com info@safarisnamibia.com hanshunt@iway.na oryxhunt@iway.na toekomsbowhunting@gmail. com eintrach@iway.na denk@jagdfarmmecklenburg. com

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

Contact Detail Email

Denker Denker Diekmann Dietz Döman Dressel Dresselhaus Dreyer

H KU WG H JF EG D D

African Hunting Safaris P50 African Hunting Safaris P50 Hamakari Safaris Askari Tours & Hunting Aloegrove Safari Lodge Jagdfarm Hairabib Heja Game Lodge Sandheuwel

du Plessis du Toit Düvel Düvel Egerer

PJ CJ CW UV M

Bergzicht Game Lodge Omutati Game & Guestfarm

Eggert Eggert Eichhoff Eichler Emmel Engelbrecht Engelhard Epler Erni Epupa Conservancy Erpf Erpf Erpf Esterhuizen Esterhuizen Falk Fechter Fechter Fechter Fietz Fischer Fourie

B HB E KU H TW G CFG EW

Friedensdorf Friedensdorf Friedrich Fug Garbade Garbade Garbade Gladis Gladis Gorn Groenewald Gruhn Grünschloss Günzel Haag Haase Haase Hakenjos

K S HH G BT HH TBH H IB MW JC BW K G GT AGF HP RW GE

G HR HW A W WA HF M MLH AE HH IV

Omambonde Tal Jagdfarm Nyati Wildlife Art / Lindenhof Safaris P1 Omatjete Safaris P69 Omatjete Safaris P69 Otjitambi Guestfarm P71 Namibia Safari Services P31 Ovita Game & Hunting Engelbrecht Safaris Jagdfarm Georg-Ferdinandshöhe Otjikaru Farming Hunting Farm Urusis Epupa Conservancy Jagdfarm Otjenga Jagdfarm Otjenga Oase Guest & Hunting Farm Estreux Safaris CC Estreux Safaris CC Ondjondo Jagdfarm Falkenhorst Safaris Falkenhorst Safaris Nababis Hunting Etemba Jagd Omongongua Hunting Chapungu - Kambako Hunting Safaris Hunting & Guestfarm Ondombo Hunting & Guestfarm Ondombo Baobab Game Ranch Montserrat Farming and Hunting Onduno Hunting P71 Onduno Hunting P71 Onduno Hunting P71 Ababis Guest & Huntingfarm Wilsonfontein Hunting Safaris Okarusewa Bellerode Hunting Jagd Safaris Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris P44 Hunting Ranch Ovisume Otjikoko Game Ranch Haasenhof Gästefarm Wilhelmstal - Nord Hetaku Safari Lodge

81 206 7682 81 201 4867 81 249 7927 81 636 6944 81 127 4103 81 128 9348 81 129 6536 (27) 21 880 9800 81 128 4825 81 170 0197 81 127 9468 81 320 3263 81 124 2080

hagen@erongosafaris.com kaiuwe@erongosafaris.com hamakari@iway.na etendero@iway.na aloegrove@afol.com.na hairabib@gmail.com dieterd@afol.com.na Divan@vastech.co.za

81 435 5502 81 127 9005 81 220 6939 81 222 6285 81 303 6253 81 242 2361 81 254 0356 81 128 4845 81 245 1616 81 409 8441

hagen@omatjete.com hagen@omatjete.com elfried@iway.na smartdip@namsaf.com.na marketing@ovitawildlife.com info@engelbrechtsafaris.com g.engelhard@afol.com.na otjikaru@iafrica.com.na erniurus@afol.com.na epupacons@gmail.com

81 127 2502 81 128 5072 81 128 8160 81 432 4800 81 127 7765 81 242 1146 81 243 2132 81 216 6131 81 240 5364 81 124 6409 62 502 993 81 278 4548

otjenga@gmail.com otjenga@gmail.com farm.oase@gmail.com info@estreuxsafaris.com info@estreuxsafaris.com ondjondjo@iway.na falcon@iway.nam matthias.fechter@gmail.com mfph@iway.na info@etemba-hunting.com nazimbo@afol.com.na hunting.isabelle@gmail.com

81 302 2896 81 269 0838 81 259 2134 81 393 9640 81 668 0361 81 809 1108 81 447 7177 81 124 1800 81 300 3857 81 124 1355 81 127 9562 81 250 9323 81 464 6174 81 128 8624 81 235 1755 81 275 2177 81 127 4911 81 149 1882

kfriedensdorf@iway.na kfriedensdorf@iway.na driehoek@mweb.com.na okauapehuri@iway.na onduno@gmail.com onduno@gmail.com onduno@gmail.com helmuth@hemconamibia.com namibhunt@hotmail.com manfred@kgss.com.na obirann@iway.na pbgruhn@iway.na kgrunschloss@yahoo.com info@ovisume.eu haag@otjikoko.com haase@iway.na rolfhaase@iway.na hetaku@iway.na

hannesd@africaonline.com.na neels@ingplan.com.na cduvel@afol.com.na omambond@iway.na nyati@nyati-wildlife-art.com.na

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

67

Surname

Initials

Operation Name

Contact Detail Email

International Tel Code +264 (0) Halenke Halenke

H R

Hohenau Hunting Ranch Hohenau Hunting Ranch

81 248 3868 81 260 0892

Hamberlain

L

Safari Club International

Hart Hauffe Heger Heger Heimstädt Hennig Henniges Hennings

BS WEG GE NO KD OW AHE SP

Hennings

DH

Herbst Herzog Hess Hillermann Hinterholzer Hobohm Horenburg Horsthemke Horsthemke Horsthemke Hübner Hufnagl

H H S M PEM HG M B HH HW MGH Y

Hugo

WK

Boscia Wildlife Ventures CC Beenbreck Safaris Otjiruse Hunting Otjiruse Hunting Game Ranch Transvaal Desert Holdings Ohorongo Safaris Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris P22 Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris P22 Kansimba Game Lodge Herzog Hunting Zighenzani-Africa Safaris P56 Blaser Safaris Erongo Lodge Abachaos #2025 Farming Hunting Farm Wronin Jagdfarm Stoetzer Jagdfarm Stoetzer Jagdfarm Stoetzer Namibia Safari Services P11 Pronto Global Air and Ocean Freight Klein Barmen

(1) 202 609 8168 81 124 7795 81 124 8887 81 280 5901 81 252 2212 81 602 5029 81 142 9191 81 147 7434 81 612 0075

Hurt

RH

Ipinge

JA

Jacobs Jacobs Janse van Rensburg Jansen Jansen van Vuuren Joubert

FB SM JF

61 232 633 81 142 8778 81 128 1970 81 128 4585 81 374 1997 81 252 5583 67 235 002 81 262 2422 81 261 9371 81 275 7078 81 124 5807 61 402 993

bhas@byronhart.com wilkohauffe@gmail.com gudrun@otjiruse.com nikolai@tandelta.biz klausheimstadt@yahoo.com christo.hennig@deserthold.com ohorongo@iway.na philip@khomas-highlandhunting.com philip@khomas-highlandhunting.com kansimba@iafrica.com.na ulrike@herzoghunting.com sigurd@zighenzani.com blasersafaris@afol.com.na erongolodge@iway.na wronin@iway.na hbhorst@iway.na hbhorst@iway.na hbhorst@iway.na weffie@iway.na yorck@prontoglobalfreight.com

81 620 0937

kleinbarmen@africaonline. com.na robinhurtnamibia@gmail.com

81 127 8441

hafeni2@gmail.com

S M J Safaris Portsmut Hunting Safaris

81 127 2232 81 128 8053 81 140 0984

leonajacobs@yahoo.co.uk smj@iway.na jansej@tgh.na

JAB L

Acacia Hunting Safaris Leopard Legend Hunting Safaris

81 292 8525 81 236 0833

acaciahunting@iafrica.com.na info@leopardlegend.com

SJ

Bergzicht Game Lodge

81 817 3573

Jupke

PGR

Jagdportal Namibia

Kaiser Kaiser Kibble Kibble Kiekebusch Koekemoer Kotze Kotze

P UJA MW PD HH GJ DJ HJL

(49) 171 445 8866 81 381 9180 81 381 9180 81 127 6924 81 124 2800 81 424 1388 81 269 5473 81 262 4506 81 148 3595

steph@bergzichtgamelodge. com peter.jupke@t-online.de

Kotzé Kotze Krafft Krafft Kratzer Kreiner Kretzschmar

Robin Hurt Safari Company (Pty) Ltd Ovitoto Game and Hunting Safaris (Pty) Ltd

Kuhwerder Jagdfarm Kuhwerder Jagdfarm Mike Kibble Safaris Trophy Safaris Jagd & Rinderfarm Hochfels Omuramba Hunting Lodge Tiefenbach Bow Hunting Chapungu Kambako Hunting Safaris HR Hugo Kotze Safaris J C Snr Omatako Hunting Trails M Ibenstein Hunting Safaris R Ibenstein Hunting Safaris EP Farm Hazeldene HA Ekongo Hunting & Safaris KE Onduasu Jagd

81 469 6224

halenke@iway.na hohenau@namibianhunting. com Laird@safariclub.org

81 259 0770 81 728 9331 62 573 507 81 149 2535 67 290 006 81 229 8444 81 127 1651

kaiser@iway.na kaiser@iway.na kibble@progress-safaris.com trophysa@afol.com.na hochfels@iway.na info@omuramba.com kotzedj@iway.na louis@chapungu-kambako.com hugo@namibia-hunt.com omatakoranch@iway.na mkrafft@afol.com.na rkrafft@afol.com.na antje@taxidermy-studio.com ekongo@iway.na onduasu@iway.na

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

68

WWW.HUNTNAMIBIA.COM.NA

Surname

Initials

Operation Name

Contact Detail Email

International Tel Code +264 (0) Kronsbein Kruger

C JJN

Apex Hunting Farm Omujeve Hunting Safaris (Pty) Ltd Ndumo Safaris P66 Lamprecht Ammunition Manufacturers Jofie Lamprecht Safaris Hunters Namibia Safaris Omuramba Hunting Lodge

Labuschagne Lamprecht

D HL

Lamprecht Lamprecht Langner Leuchtenberger

J M A JM

Leuschner Levin Leyendecker

LI J HJ

Glenorkie Hunting Farm

Lichtenberg Liedtke

C GP

Otjisororindi Jagdfarm Okondura Nord Hunt & Guestfarm

Lindeque Ling Lopes Lueke Dr Lüesse Lühl Lung Lüsse MacKinnon MacKinnon Manusakis Marais Dr Marker Marnewecke Mason Matthaei Matthaei Mc Donald Meier Mentrup Menzel-Ritter Metzger Metzger Meyer Meyer

M RW JF M H-G R JC D SL DG D S L FC C RH JFE A T CH M D KB PH J

Michaels Michels Morris

R S K

Namib Taxidermy Kambaku Lodge and Safaris Byseewah Safaris

Mostert Mousley

P DB

Muller Muller Muller Muller Müller

DA GJ JR LP R

Afrika Jag Safaris Namibia Robin Hurt Safari Company (Pty) Ltd Daggaboy Hunting Safaris P62 Otjinuke Hunting Ranch P68 Noasanabis Game Lodge Okatare Safari Krieghoff (Inside front)

Namene

RK

Nebe Neethling

JFCK CC

Namibia Dreams

Die Keiler Damara Dik-Dik Safaris P56 Blaser Safaris Ltd Panorama Hunting Ranch Jagdfarm Okuje Ozondjahe Safaris Achenib Hunting Aru Game Lodges P48 Aru Game Lodges P48 Omatako Big Game Hunting Keibeb Safari Cheetah Conservation Fund Camelthorn Safaris Dallas Safari Club Ombakata Jagd & Safaris Ombakata Jagd & Safaris Gun and Bow Hunting Safaris Ohorongo Safaris Ritter Safari Adventures CC Makadi Safaris P8 Makadi Safaris P8 Albrechtshöhe Guestfarm

Boskloof Hunting and Guest Farm Ovita Game & Hunting Farm Agagia Hunting Safaris

81 286 8606 81 129 1877

info@apex-safaris.eu omujeve@afol.com.na

81 365 0211 81 843 4747

huntingdivan@gmail.com hannslouis@lamcc.co

81 129 8765 81 303 3010 81 347 4851 (49) 173 604 0904 81 640 6668 81 129 1530 (49) 176 3078 8125 81 262 6608 81 128 5039

jofie@jofielamprechtsafaris.com marina.lamprecht@icloud.com info@omuramba.com

81 124 5495 81 247 1091 81 242 6070 81 374 1997 81 124 7508 81 289 6790 67 306 770 81 127 8590 81 127 5129 81 122 1240 81 128 4440 81 245 7721 81 124 7887 81 260 2405

malan.lindeque@gmail.com cowdray@iway.na dikdik@iway.na blasersafaris@afol.com.na doc.lueesse@icloud.com okuje@iway.na ozondj@mweb.com.na achenib@iway.na dmack@iway.na derek@arugamelodges.com namibia@omatako-safaris.com info@keibeb.na director@cheetah.org camelthornsafaris@iway.na Corey@biggame.org jagd@namsafcon.com booking@ombakata.com alex@namagri.com ohorongo@iway.na mogoto1913@gmail.com info@namibia-jagd.com diethelm@makadi-safaris.com katja@makadi-safaris.com meyer@iafrica.com.na juergen.meyer@hp.com

81 279 3364 81 124 4774 81 128 6821 81 128 2425 81 663 3317 81 244 1894 81 128 9017 81 248 7144 81 355 1255 (49) 162 289 7608 81 316 9551 81 585 1920 81 124 9593 81 124 2040 81 147 9033

Otjimbuku. The Hunting Farm in Namibia’s Sandveld offers you a hunt on 27000 acres on free roaming plains game with personal guidance.

glenorkie@iway.na jacolevin@icloud.com info@namibia-dreams.de lichtenberg@iway.na okondura@africaonline.com.na

Johann Thiessen E-Mail: otjimbuk@iway.na Tel: +264 62 549 060 WhatsApp: +264 81 124 6407 www.otjimbuku.com

namibtaxidermy@afol.com.na smichels@kambaku.com byseewah@iway.na / kenmorris@iway.na erongofp@gmail.com danbmousley@live.com

81 128 1215 81 260 6468 81 294 0132 81 124 4711 (49) 172 734 8753 81 140 2341

damuller@iway.na gmuller@afol.com.na justus@iway.na okatare@afol.com.na Ralf.Mueller@krieghoff.de

62 500 760 81 149 3838

info@ovitawildlife.com agagia@afol.com.na

rknamene03@yahoo.co.uk

info@napha.com.na info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com / www.napha-namibia.com

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

69

Surname

Initials

Operation Name

Contact Detail Email

International Tel Code +264 (0)

When the reason is stronger than the passion The lodge is owned by an italian family

T: +264 62 682096/7 F: +264 62 682098 C: +264 81 127 2819 info@okarumutigamelodge.com www.okarumutigamelodge.com

Neubrech Neumann Niel

JG JA N

Nietmann Nolte Nortje

GHJ NJ LCA

Nick Nolte Hunting Safaris CC Buccara Wildlife Reserve

Nyhuis

C

European Union Delegate & CIC

81 220 9420 (27) 60 555 5548 81 345 5152

Odendaal Oelofse

GH A

Gohunt Namibia Safaris Jan Oelofse Hunting Safaris

81 241 8990 81 124 7630

Oelofsen Olivier

BW GH

Pretorius Prinsloo Rademeyer

DW

Collect Africa Ltd

Redecker Redecker Redecker Redecker Reinhardt Reinhardt Ritter

FW GA JW UG EC PM MM

Die Keiler - Farm Westfalenhof Die Keiler - Farm Westfalenhof Die Keiler - Farm Westfalenhof Die Keiler - Farm Westfalenhof Bushman Trails Africa Bushman Trails Africa

Ritter Ritzdorf Rode

RD WT A

Ritter Safari Adventures CC Ritzdorf Jagd & Photo Safaris

Rogl Rogl Rogl Rogl Rossouw

A BF M W A

Rowland Rumpf Rusch Rust Sack

RW JE REF H GW B

Otjiruze Safaris CC P4 Otjiruze Safaris CC P4 Otjiruze Safaris CC P4 Otjiruze Safaris CC P4 Moreson Bird & Game Trophy Hunting Farm RW Rowland Hunting Safaris Combumbi Jagd Panorama Hunting Ranch Erongo Hunting Safari Jagdfarm Maroela

Oosthuizen Osborne Otto Otto Ouin Pack Pack Pape Pauly Pienaar Pienaar Pienaar

25 YEAR

S

81 255 5868 (43) 664 414 2202

Etosha View Hunting Panorama Rock Game Ranch Safaris AJ Game Trackers Africa Safaris P62 TO Windpoort Farm Trophy Hunting CK Hunting Farm Kachauchab V Ondjiviro Hunting Safaris P38 V J A Cloud Sky Investments 8 (Pty) Ltd RU Okasandu Farming P12 H Jagdfarm Ottawa IG Okatore Lodge & Safaris SH Hayas Hunting J H Snr Hunt Africa Namibia Safaris J H Jnr Hunt Africa Namibia Safaris SW African Plains Safaris CC t/a Schalk Pienaar Safaris Namibia C Eureka Hunting Safaris JRM H Namibia Safari Services P11 / Smart Dip Namibia P31 FK Namatubis Hunting Safaris S First Class Trophy Taxidermy

Potgieter Powel Preschel

Discover Namibia at its best!

Etemba Jagd

etemba@afol.com.na jaeger1johann@gmail.com Nikolaus.Niel@gmx.at info@nicknoltehunting.com cnortje@buccara.com

81 481 9222 81 124 5202 81 226 9518 81 294 0141 81 475 8667

Christian.Nyhuis@rocketmail. com gohunt@iway.na alex.oelofse@africaonline. com.na boelofsen@afol.com.na panoramarock@africaonline. com.na jaco@gametrackersafrica.com kori@iway.na info@namibia-hunter.com info@ondjiviro.com vamsaabi@hotmail.com

81 394 9311 81 124 7165 81 148 4845 81 268 3510 81 124 3299 81 240 1828 81 149 1070

info@okasandu.com ottawa@iway.na info@okatore.com shpauly@gmail.com info@huntafrica.com.na info@huntafrica.com.na schalk470@gmail.com

81 322 6221

info@eurekahuntingsafaris.com jrmpowel@gmail.com harald@namsaf.com.na

81 127 3196 81 259 5612

81 124 4718 81 124 9616 (49) 176 84 59 02 87 (27) 76 785 9085 81 717 2002 81 284 7569 81 288 3061 81 250 4567 81 277 6688 81 258 5887 (49) 177 456 5924 81 488 3090 81 124 9300 (49) 172 292 1122 81 300 4231 81 127 0719 81 209 5035 81 609 6292 081 127 4808

kochp@iway.na stefanus@firstclasstrophy.com

61 222 800 81 240 9695 81 398 9943 81 245 3713 81 240 9972

r.rowland@geva-sales.com combumbi@iway.na panorama@afol.com.na omandumba@iway.na maroela@iway.na

dave@northernoperationsafrica. com westfalenhof@iway.na gernotredecker84@gmail.com J_Redecker@gmx.de westfalenhof@iway.na kalaharisonne@gmail.com bushmantrailsafrica@gmail.com marco.ritter@googlemail.com info@namibia-jagd.com winfried.ritzdorf@gmail.com rode@kleinemas.de alexrogl@gmx.de barbara@otjiruze.com markus@otjiruze.com werner@otjiruze.com moreson@afol.com.na

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

70

WWW.HUNTNAMIBIA.COM.NA

Surname

Initials

Operation Name

Contact Detail Email

International Tel Code +264 (0) Sauber Savoldelli

E N

BüllsPort Lodge und Farm Okarumuti Hunting & Photographic Safari P70 Jagdfarm Erichsfelde Agarob Hunting Safaris Otjitambi Guestfarm P71 Ovita Game & Hunting Okatjeru Hunting CC Ombu Jagd & Gästefarm

81 149 4963 81 127 2819

Scheidt Schickerling Schlettwein Schlettwein Schmidt Schmidt Schmidt

RK JF JC WUB AM WFR M

Schmitt SchneiderWaterberg Scholtissek Scholz Schoonbee Schubert Schuetz Schünemann Schwalm Schwalm

C H

Okambara Elephant Lodge P64 Waterberg Game Guest Farm

81 208 6961 81 240 6456 81 201 4233 81 317 6319 81 128 9389 81 128 5724 (49) 151 117 24644 81 467 6448 81 124 6688

Y EG DG CF GA H G R

Otjitoroa Safaris All African Safaris SMJ Safaris Hunting and Guestfarm Aurora Hefner Farming Zighenzani-Africa Safaris P56 Omalanga Safaris Omalanga Safaris

81 225 2288 81 302 5888 81 371 0976 81 128 6459 81 122 7767 81 202 7930 81 129 9578 81 258 0660

Schwarz Sentefol

F R

Ondjou Safaris African Shipping Services CC

81 206 0520 81 306 3025

Skrywer Slaney Smit Spangenberg Sternagel Sternagel Sternagel Stolzenberg (Snr) Strauss Strydom Stumpfe Svenblad Swanepoel Swanepoel Thiessen Thude Traut Trümper Trümper Uffindell Utz

B WH DJ JJ UT HMF WK F

Aru Game Lodges P48 Otjimbondona Orpa Hunt Gras Hunting Farm Ganeib Jagd & Gästefarm Ganeib Jagd & Gästefarm Ganeib Jagd & Gästefarm Stolzenberg Safaris

81 204 3184 81 127 4358 81 288 6587 81 127 1311 81 122 0528 81 122 0525 81 127 0465 81 124 0032

J HJ K H A DB J S PJ B U AF G

Kowas Adventure Safaris Shamwari Farming PTY (Ltd) Ndumo Safaris P66 Otjandaue Hunting Farm Aru Game Lodges P48 Ekuja Hunting Namibia Otjimbuku Hunting Farm P69 Wild Erongo Safaris Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris P44 Airport Hunting & Guestfarm Airport Hunting & Guestfarm Aloe Hunting Safaris African Safari Trails

81 295 6581 81 147 6953 81 128 5416 64 570 821 81 128 9222 81 311 1051 81 142 6407 81 214 7744 81 147 3816 81 124 1240 81 128 8288 81 128 5959 81 128 5074

Utz van den Berg van der Merwe van der Merwe van der Westhuizen van der Westhuizen van der Westhuyzen van der Westhuyzen

W WJ JS R NH

81 124 0787 81 149 1853 81 127 0906 81 288 1882 81 127 0400

ernst@buellsport.com info@okarumutigamelodge. com efelde@iafrica.com.na hunting@agarobsafaris.com jcsotjitambi@iway.na info@ovitawildlife.com alan@okatjeru.com ombufarm@iway.na info@ram-schmidt.de okambara@iway.na info@waterbergnamibia.com y.scholtissek@otji-safaris.com allafricansafaris@gmail.com dgschoonbee@gmail.com huntingfarm.aurora@gmail.com farmhefner@gmail.com henning@zighenzani.com gunter.schwalm@gmail.com reservations@omalangasafaris. net halseton@iway.na rainer@africanshippingservices. com info@arugamelodges.com wilfried@profilesafaris.com hunting@orpahunt.com info@jagdfarmgras.com uwe.cds@iway.na helen1@iway.na ganeib@iafrica.com.na stolzenb@iway.na straussjacques20@gmail.com shamwari@iway.na karl@huntingsafaris.net diane.svenblad@aland.net accounts@arugamelodges.com ekuja.hunting@gmail.com otjimbuk@iway.na hunt@wilderongo.com jamytraut@gmail.com max.trumper@gmail.com info@airportfarm-namibia.com aloesaf@mweb.com.na african-safari-trails@afol. com.na wilutz@iway.na mashete@afol.com.na jaco@jsvdm.com otjandaue@iway.na nico@ikhanas.com

JW

Mashete Safaris Namibia Safari Corporation P72 Otjandaue Hunting Farm Quadrant Namibia (Pty) Ltd / Ikhanas Westfalen Hunting

D

Aru Game Lodges P48

81 129 5536

info@westfalenhuntnamibia. com info@arugamelodges.com

GN

Aru Game Lodges P48

81 296 2651

gysbert@arugamelodges.com

81 128 4011

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

HUNTiNAMIBIA | 2020

71

Surname

Initials

Operation Name

Contact Detail Email

rt

o irp

50

km

»A

www.jagdfarmmecklenburg.com

International Tel Code +264 (0) van Dyk van Heerden

C BH

van Heerden van Heerden van Niekerk van Rensburg van Rooyen van Schalkwyk van Zyl van Zyl Veldsman

CA PW J HH MJJ Q PB AJL M JF

Viljoen Visser Vogel

EP JH IW

Vogl Voigts Voigts von Gossler von Hacht von Hacht von Koenen von Schuman von SeydlitzKurzbach von SeydlitzKurzbach von SeydlitzKurzbach von Treuenfels

M RW UD O FW HJ SA HW HS

Walker

CJD

Cliff Walker Safaris

Walter Wamback Wenske Wilckens Wilckens Wilckens

M AE H-J H S I

Otjikoko (Pty) Ltd Pro Hunting Namibia Klipkop Lodge & Farming Okaturua Hunting Omateva Hunting Die Keiler - Jagdfarm Ongangasemba

Witjes

TGF

Wölbling Woortman

G HC

Woortman

VHH

Wrede

AFA

Wright Zander Ziller Zimny

R GP HH M

FW W

Windpoort Farm Van Heerden Safaris, Ondjou Safaris Namibia Trophy Hunting Safaris JJ Hunting Safaris Uhlenhorst Hunting Safaris Osonjiva Hunting Safaris Portsmut Hunting Safaris Farm Marienhof Trust Track & Trail Safaris Outpost Safaris Shona Hunting Adventures

81 207 9043 81 228 2189

chrisvandyk@live.co.uk vhsaf@afol.com.na

81 236 6080 81 124 7617 81 294 4676 81 127 7646

Tactical Sports CC Klawerberg Game Ranch Hunting & Guestfarm Gross Okandjou

81 144 4131 81 227 5030 64 570 925

Voigtskirch Krumhuk Orua Hunting Farm (Die Keiler) Okatjo Jagdfarm Okatjo Jagdfarm Jagdfarm Hüttenhain Omupanda Jagd Safari CC Schoenfeld Hunting & Safaris

81 345 5676 81 256 0105 81 270 0660 81 129 0137 81 294 0463 81 256 0054 81 302 9241 81 129 8999

namibiatrophy@gmail.com johanjjhs@iway.na hoecon@afol.com.na info@osonjiva.com info@phs.com.na philvs@afol.com.na trackatrailsafaris@hotmail.com marnusvz@icloud.com shona@africanhuntingnamibia. com rico@tac-sport.com janmarievisser@iway.na immo.vogel@gross-okandjou. com info@pferde-vogl.de voigtskirch@iway.na ud.voigts@krumhuk.com.na orua@iway.na frido@iway.na okatjo@iway.na svkoenen@afol.com.na info@omupanda.com schoenfeld.safaris@gmail.com

81 128 5511 81 244 0401 81 127 3530 81 128 3105

Immenhof Hunting & Guestfarm 81 128 5858 P16 Immenhof Hunting & Guestfarm 81 127 7243

immenhof@iway.na

(49) 171 778 0586 (263) 77 216 8253 81 147 6789 64 570 743 81 212 8800 81 148 8373 81 243 7242 81 216 5012

michivt@t-online.de

(31) 6 5250 2622 81 246 2075 81 847 7784

european@planet.nl

81 233 2131

omatako@omatako.com

81 129 4252

wredemad@africaonline. com.na info@okatjeru.com

MJG

Waterberg Hunting Namibia Omatako Hunting & Tourism (Pty) Omatako Hunting & Tourism (Pty) Gurus Farm Okatjeru Hunting Safaris

Haasenhof Gästefarm

81 122 1720 62 503 709 85 229 2885 81 262 3339

werner@immenhofhunting.com

cliff@cliffwalkersafaris.com mwfarms@iway.na proguide@iway.na hjklipkop@gmail.com okaturua@afol.com.na omateva@iway.na onganga@iway.na

info@waterberg-hunting.com omatako@omatako.com

hansziller@hotmail.com michizimny@gmail.com

+264 81 129 0109 info@jagdfarmmecklenburg.com

info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com info@napha.com.na / www.napha-namibia.com

72

WWW.HUNTNAMIBIA.COM.NA

NAKARA SHOP WINDHOEK Gustav Voigts Centre Independence Avenue 131 Tel/Fax 061 224 209 Email: info@nakara.na NAKARA SWAKOPMUND The Arcade, Tel/Fax: +264 64 405 907 NAKARA FACTORY WINDHOEK 3 Solingen Str. Northern Industrial Tel +264 61 429 100

www.nakara-namibia.com

napha

namibia professional hunting association

for peace of mind - hunt with a napha member Sustainable trophy hunting is applied conservation

since 1974

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