On safari with Pete de Villiers
My ancestors were from the two original de Villiers brothers who came to the Cape in the 1670s and started Boschendal Wine Farm. I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1959. We ranched at Matetsi in Zimbabwe. In the 1950s and 1960s in that area, my father, Max de Villiers...
Wild stripy pony
The mountain zebra is white with black stripes and the legs are ring-striped to the hooves. The underparts are white and there is a distinctive “grid-iron” pattern of transverse black stripes on the rump above the tail. The muzzle tip is black blending into...
Taxidermist profile: Limpopo Taxidermy
Contact: (Owner/Manager) Lestie Cloete-Trollip Mobile: +27 82 667 8675 Contact Email: Limpopo.taxidermy@vodamail.co.za Website: limpopotaxidermy.com Tell us a little about your operation How it started and how we got into the industry… I am Lestie Cloete-Trollip,...
In pursuit of the king of the Sneeuberg
A couple of months ago I was down in Graaff Reinet for a Greywing Partridge shoot with my good friend Tim Van Heerden from Karoo Wingshooting (which is a hunt anyone interested in wingshooting must go and do, but that is a story for another time) and we got to talking...
Hunting Namibia’s most formidable swordsman
Daybreak finds us sitting close to the camel thorn fire, for the morning air is chilly. Soon the kettle boils and coffee is brewed. Another day on the arid hunting grounds awaits. My hunting friend Lance and I have pursued many animals with some success, but it is the...
The Rhino War – Who will Guard the Guards?
A legal market in rhino horn continues to be stubbornly opposed by the South African Government, CITES, the animal rights movement and well-meaning but misguided people all around the world. But demand for rhino horns continues unabated, and the people who want this...
October 2020 newsletter
If ever there was a product fairly and squarely prepared for whoever hunts and loves Africa, it would be the AHG. It’s there to promote Africa and her hunting. We also promote outfitters, the people who offer and try to provide the very best hunting experiences for...
On Safari in Africa with… Russ Lovemore
Q: When and where were you born? A: I was born in Port Elizabeth in 1967. Grew up on a farm in the nearby Paterson area. Q: How did you get into hunting – what was it that influenced you? A: My father was not a hunter, however both my grandfathers were and their...
The Great Elephant Balancing Act
Of all the issues that get people worked up into a frenzy of indignation, elephant trophy hunting is high on the list. When Botswana recently announced that it would be opening up elephant hunting after years of the activity being banned, animals-rights activists and...
Taxidermist profile: Colletts Wildlife Artistry
Contact: (Owner/Manager) Steve Collett Address: 15 Josiah Chinamano Road, Belmont, Bulawayo Zimbabwe Tel Office: +263 29 2885 868 or +263 29 2885 349 Mobile: +263 712 220 966 or +27 648459117 Email: stevecwa14@gmail.com Website: collettswildlifeartistry.com Tell us a...
Namibia’s Khomas Hochland
In the early eighties, the history of the Khomas Hochland Conservancy began. The Conservancy was founded to get neighboring farmers together and to reintroduce game species into the area. It was an important step to get the farmers together to combine the interests of...
The common warthog
Description The common warthog has an overall skin colour of grey with a sparse covering of bristle-like hairs and a mane of long, erectile hairs along neck and back. The colour of mane hairs varies from straw-brown to black and is raised when an animal is under...
Wildlife Artist Profile: Dean Lewis
I was born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe where I had a fantastic upbringing and made incredible friends right from junior school through to high school where I boarded at Plumtree school, situated approximately 100km south west of Bulawayo. My most cherished...
September 2020 Newsletter
If your trophy’s still not home…. Going back 20 years, some taxidermists were unapologetic of their lead time. I recall one explaining how skulls take time and how 18 months was really not a long time to wait. This was while they sat on your 50% deposit! It was what...
On Safari in Africa with… Hannes du Plessis
Q: Tell us about your family, how they originally got to Africa. A: My ancestors arrived in Africa during the 17th century. Q: When and where were you born? A: I was born in Windhoek, Namibia on 6 February, 1963. Q: How did you get into hunting – what was it that...
On safari with… Axel Engman
Q: Tell us how you came to be in Africa. A: I am the first generation of the Engman clan to have settled in South Africa – and I arrived on an airplane. Q: So where were you born? A: I was born in Sweden in a little village named Dalstorp in 1969, and moved to the...
News from Namibia
Like other African ecotourism and hunting destinations, Namibia has been devastated by the sudden and totally unforeseen collapse of both these important industries resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the virus begins to subside, the country's resilient...
African Savanna Buffalo
Massively built, with relatively short and stocky legs, ears large and fringed with black hair. Massive black horns are variable “W” shaped in the front view and those of the bull heavier, often longer, and a heavy boss is present at base. Ears hang below horns....
On safari with… Jaco Oosthuizen
Q: When and where were you born? A: I was born in northern Namibia back in 1973, in the town of Tsumeb, though I spent my early years on a cattle ranch just east of Etosha National Park. Later on we lived in town because of the high security risk in the middle of the...
August newsletter
Last month a reader correctly told me to stay on topic as my last editorial deviated towards what we are all so sick of - so, thanks for pulling me in line. Here goes: One has to be tough to live in the oldest desert in the world, withstanding the harshest mid-day...
The vast and diverse Northern Cape
Mike Birch of Hunt the Sun Safaris takes us on a trip through South Africa’s largest province. Possibly the most underrated hunting destination in South Africa, the Northern...
Botswana mysterious elephant deaths – the mystery continues…
In my July column I discussed the mysterious deaths of numbers of elephants in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana. The authorities in that country have been rather reticent about releasing any results of the tests conducted on tissue samples from the dead elephants...
The striking southern oryx
The southern oryx, or gemsbok (O. g. gazella) is a large antelope with a stocky build and a short, thick neck. Both sexes carry long, almost straight, transversely ridged, rapier-like horns with those of bull shorter and more robust. The body is greyish-fawn in...
On Safari with… Philip Hennings
Tell us about your family, how they originally got to Africa My family started exploring southern Africa in the 1970s. My grandfather purchased a ranch in former South West Africa, now Namibia. My father Dietmar and my mother moved to Namibia in 1990 when I was born....
July newsletter
July independence …or not? In line with USA’s month of Independence, it seems just about everything has lost its independence. From education, social and main stream media, our civil liberties, through to just about anything else. The only thing we truly have left...
The mystery of Botswana’s dying elephants
In May this year, elephants started dying in the Okavango Delta region of Botswana, a country known for its large and burgeoning elephant numbers. With a population estimated at some 135,000 individuals, Botswana has the largest concentration of these pachyderms in...
World Environment Day, 5 June 2020
The theme for this year's global environment day is biodiversity, meaning the components of the natural world that work together to constitute the living planet. The number and variety of species in the world is astonishingly huge, with only a fraction of the species...
Farewell to an African conservation visionary
Garth Owen-Smith lost his battle with cancer on 21 April 2020, and so ended the life of an extraordinary man who has left an indelible mark on the practice of wildlife conservation in Africa. For 53 years, from his first visit to Namibia in 1967, Garth devoted his...
Mozambique is waiting for you
The Covid Pandemic – the impact on rural Africans
While the world goes into “lockdown” in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, international travel, tourism and hunting activities have ground to a halt. The flow of money that used to reach rural African communities in the form of hunting income has dried up....