This cover is a most unusual animal and not your regular member of any list to look out for, photograph or hunt. In fact there are very places you can actually hunt the aardwolf. The first time I ever saw one was when growing up in Bulalwayo, a few hundred yards from our house lived Richard Peek – the man who started (I think) Taxidermy Enterprises. In his yard he had one of these chaps that spent much of the day wondering around his small enclosure, walking in an out of his hole. Not sure whatever happened to it, or how it got there – but the lasting impression was made. Seeing one many years later near Sossusvlei, Namibia was again a tremendous treat. Then of all places in Morgan Bay, Eastern Cape, when I holiday I went for a morning run, only to see a juvenile one that had been recently killed by a car. Hiding the unscathed body next to the road, finishing my run, I went to fetch the critter and Morgan Bay hotel kindly stored him in the deep freeze till we left for Joburg.
Today, the mounted creature is in Afton Safari Lodge and is one of my favourite animals. I hope you enjoy this edition of the African Hunting Gazette.