Bowhunting a Tsessebe Bull

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Frank Berbuir

 

What is a tsessebe, some guys in my home country asked when I told them about my bowhunting adventure on this African antelope…

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It is the end of August and I am lucky to be back again in South Africa to bowhunt with my PH Izak Vos from Vos Safaris. For a week we have been in our cosy hunting camp on a nice farm on the border of the North West Province, close to the Limpopo Province.

The scenery along the Crocodile River is stunning, with some challenging hunting grounds – stony mountains, dense bush, and open plains. In our last week we saw from time to time a small herd of tsessebe with a very old bull, some females, and only a few juveniles. We also saw, quite far from the herd, two very young males with some clearly visible signs of injuries. The farmer explained that the bull was either fighting to the death with the male calves, or exiling them from the herd where they would most likely die in the bush from their injuries or fall prey to hyenas and other predators. So the herd did not grow much the last five years, and we would be doing him a favor if we hunted this bull.

 

Our first day started with a refreshing morning walk to the area where the “beestes” usually roam, and where we had seen them before. South African winter early mornings are quite chilly, but the splendid sunrise and the warming sun in our faces was a delight. When we reached the area we planned how we wanted to approach and stalk the animals. Even though the herd was small there were plenty of eyes, ears and noses that are much more sensitive and sharper than ours, and they get your scent and silhouette in a split second. With the wind in our favor we sneaked closely to a bush where we could hide and see them. We were about 150 meters from them when it became more challenging. We slowly moved forward, almost waddling like ducks to the next covering bush, always keeping an eye on the antelopes. So far they were all calm and easy.

 

It took an hour to shorten the distance to 100 meters when suddenly they all looked up in our direction. We froze behind our sparse cover, and when you are sitting on your haunches, this starts to hurt after a couple of minutes! We could not figure out what disturbed them, but they started slowly moving away from us. That´s the way the cookie crumbles.

 

So, it’s a case of begin again to follow and try to get closer. Once they were behind some bushes and we were not in their sight, we cautiously sneaked out behind our cover and stalked bent over, at a snail´s pace to the next available cover. To make a long story short the situation repeated several times. Four hours went by, and with the sun high above and rising temperatures, the challenge became more and more demanding. Suddenly there were crackling noises from behind us, and we saw three giraffes approaching at about 50 meters from us, and they would likely smell or see us.

 

Now it was getting even more difficult. If we got up or moved we would probably spook them all. So we hid ourselves in a thorny bush, as low as possible and keeping dead quiet. Thankfully the Sniper Africa camouflage hunting clothes are quite thorn-resistant and the hunting gods were also in our favour, as the giraffes fortunately turned to the left and wandered off unconcerned, not even seeing us. But it was exciting for us.

 

Luckily the tsessebe were still there, unperturbed by the giraffes, but we still 100 meters distance from them. We gradually crawled closer.

 

Time was running out. By now it was high noon and hot. However, we made progress without spooking any tsessebe. At the last bush between us and the animals we stopped and checked the distance with the rangefinder.

 

“The bull is standing to the left at 38 meters,” Izak whispered. “You will not get closer and you have to wait until he turns quartering away or broadside but you better get ready. It’s now or never, Frank. It’s Showtime!”

It was up to me. I knelt, nocked in the arrow quietly, and set the sight on the correct distance. Still calm, I pulled my bow smoothly to full draw. I angled my upper body a bit to the right for a clear shooting window, and aimed with my sight pin on his vitals.

I could feel my heart beating fast, and it seemed like eternity until the bull stepped to the right and stood quartering away. I take a deep breath and finally tap the trigger of my release.

The arrow was on its deadly mission and within a split second penetrated the antelope´s body.

“Yes,” Izak whispered. “The arrow is completely in and you can only see fletches sticking out.” The bull jumped, and together with rest of the herd was running away. We tried to follow his direction before he disappeared between some bushes, then heard nothing more. We were in suspense. After a 20-minute rest we followed the tracks and blood trail from the spot where the arrow had penetrated. At first the trail was clear and easy to follow, but after 50 meters there was no more sign of blood. Happily I had an excellent and experienced professional hunter at my side who is also an expert tracker. He found the tracks of the bull and carefully went forward with me following, when he suddenly stopped at the edge of a bush, shook my hand, and hugged me.

“Congrats, well done my friend. You got a tsessebe!” he said. I was surprised and bewildered.

“Why are you congratulating me?”

“Look around the bush!” he smiled. I did, and there was my fine tsessebe bull. Overcome, I knelt down, and evaluated the magnificent animal. It had again been an incredible and challenging experience with bow and arrow, and finally I was able to take this magnificent animal. After some great pictures we radioed the farmer to pick us up, and when he arrived and saw the bull, the joy was complete – a happy farmer, happy professional hunter and happy bowhunter.

 

Once more a tremendously good hunt with unforgettable impressions and memories together with my friend and PH Izak Vos from Vos Safaris in South Africa. Shoot straight, take care, always good hunting, “Waidmannsheil” and “Alles van die beste”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”View Article in eZine” color=”chino” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fafricanhuntinggazette.com%2Fjuly-aug-sep-2019%2F%23africanhuntinggazette-ezine-july%2F92-93||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1563781289224-814704d5-ca3f-4″ include=”22661,22662,22663,22664,22665,22666,22667″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Terry Wieland On Ammo

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]FATHER OF THEM ALL

 

Thanks to Zulu, the classic 1964 movie starring Michael Caine, the Martini-Henry rifle enjoys a celebrity among citizens at large that is rare among military weapons. Tens of millions of people have seen that movie and, if nothing else, learned about rifle drill in the British Army in 1879.

 

For anyone who might have missed it, Zulu depicts, with quite admirable accuracy, the battle of Rorke’s Drift, in Natal in 1879. The army awarded 11 Victoria Crosses; in my opinion, there could have been a twelfth, for the Martini-Henry certainly played a heroic role.

 

The old Martini is one of the lesser-sung military rifles in history. It was not used for long — about 15 years — and was really a transitional weapon between the muzzleloader and the repeating cartridge rifle. Still, it had an enormous impact in several different ways. After it was officially retired in favor of the bolt-action Lee-Metford in 1888, stocks of Martini-Henrys were distributed to colonial troops, militia battalions, hunters, and target shooters throughout the Empire — and that meant, literally, throughout the world. For a century afterwards, you could walk into a farmhouse in Kenya, Rhodesia, Natal, Saskatchewan, New Zealand, or New South Wales and find a Martini-Henry behind the door, ready for action.

 

Over the long term, its cartridge, the .577/.450, was even more influential than the rifle itself. For one thing, its 480-grain bullet set the standard for .45-caliber dangerous-game cartridges that lasts to this day. Subsequent nitro-express cartridges, starting with the .450 NE in 1898, used 480-grain bullets. When .450s were banned in India and the Sudan around 1905, to keep ammunition out of the hands of insurgents, it was because there were so many old Martini-Henrys in the hands of the would-be rebels. Substitutes for the .450 NE included the .470 Nitro Express, .475 No. 2 NE, and Holland & Holland’s .500/.465. More often than not, the standard bullet weight was 480 grains.

 

The Martini-Henry proved to be so durable, reliable, and adaptable that many were rebarreled to .303 British after 1888, and thousands of new Martinis were also made in .303. Many of these continue in service to this day. With .303 British ammunition one of the most common calibers to be found from Cairo to the Cape, it was natural to arm everything from game scouts and park rangers to camp guards and farm workers with them.

 

The flip side of that coin is that untold numbers of African animals have been either poached, or wounded, by a Martini-Henry, whether chambered in .577/.450 or .303 British, but that is hardly the rifle’s fault.

 

A lesser known negative of the old Martini is its horrid recoil. Viewers of Zulu might contest that statement, since every shot fired in the movie appeared to have no recoil at all, nor was there much in the way of black-powder smoke. Of course not – they were using blanks. The real-life Martini was noted for brutal recoil, mainly because of the shape of the stock. For its time, however, it was extremely fast to operate — tests showed trained infantrymen capable of maintaining a rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute. The roughly 140 defenders of Rorke’s Drift fired more than 20,000 rounds during the battle. Considering there were 4,000 Zulu attackers, the Martini’s rate of fire evened the odds somewhat.

 

The rifle is also enormously strong. Tests at the Providence Tool Company in Rhode Island, at the time they were fulfilling a contract to supply 600,000 Martini-Henrys to the Ottoman Empire, proved the action to be a beast. At one point, they put five (5) 480-grain bullets in the barrel ahead of a double charge of gunpowder. The rifle took it without a whimper.

 

It’s no wonder, then, that the Martini-Henry is still relatively common to find in use, 140 years after it was retired from the British service as obsolete. A 480-grain, hard-cast bullet, in the right place, will still stop virtually anything, and there is little in the way of plains game that can’t be taken with the .303.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Kynamco in England is the only company that now manufactures .577/.450 Martini-Henry ammunition. Finding some would be the difficulty. If you want to shoot one, handloading is about the only real option. Fortunately, with a little work, brass can be fashioned from .577 cases, which will take Boxer primers; the Martini can handle smokeless-powder pressures with no problem, and cast bullets are common as dirt.

 

In fact, loading some ammunition and trying to match the 20 rounds a minute record of a Victorian infantrymen would be an interesting challenge. Let me know how you make out.

 

 

 

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African Wingshooting Popularity Reaching New Levels

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Ken Bailey

There’s an emerging trend in African hunting circles that is seeing dedicated wingshooting safaris rising in popularity. As all who’ve hunted or visited Africa know, it is home to an astounding variety of bird life, including game birds, but they’ve largely been ignored as hunters pursued their big-game aspirations. That’s changed in recent years, and current trends are seeing an increasing number of safaris where bird shooting is the primary objective.

Safari Club International (SCI), recognizing this trend, created a new awards program just a short time ago, dedicated solely to wingshooting. The Game Birds of the World Platform was developed to bring increased attention to the array of bird-hunting opportunities around the world. Seven distinct classifications were established specifically in recognition of African wingshooting:

Quail

Four species of quail were identified, including the common quail. It has a wide range, stretching from West Africa to the Red Sea down to South Africa, wherever suitable grassland habitat is found. The blue quail is a nomadic, uncommon species found across sub-Saharan Africa, though it’s rare south of Zambia and Mozambique. The Harlequin quail is very similar in appearance to the common quail, and their range largely overlaps, although the Harlequin doesn’t extend as far north or west across the continent. SCI lumps all buttonquail together, although there are actually three distinct species. To qualify for the African Quail Award, a hunter must shoot two of the four recognized species.

Partridge, Francolin and Spurfowl

SCI identifies eight species in their program, including Coqui, greywing, Orange River and crested partridge, red-wing and Shelley’s francolin, and the red-billed and red-necked spurfowl. These birds are all somewhat similar in appearance, resembling the Hungarian, or grey, partridge familiar to North American and European hunters. These eight species represent only about 20% of the partridge and francolin found across Africa, but are the most common in those countries and regions where the vast majority of recreational hunting occurs. A hunter is required to take at least six of these species to qualify for SCI’s awards program.

Guineafowl

Few African birds are as recognizable or iconic as the guineafowl. A somewhat unusual appearance belies a crafty mind, however, and these birds that would rather run than fly are notoriously challenging to hunt. The three species identified in SCI’s program include the helmeted guineafowl common throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, the crested species found in scattered regions in west, east and southern Africa, and the distinctive vulturine guineafowl of east Africa. Qualifying hunters must shoot two of these species.

Doves and Pigeons

They don’t quite compete with Argentinian numbers, but African doves and pigeons can be found in significant numbers in nearly every country with hunting. Unlike in South America, there is a wide diversity of species available, and the new SCI program recognizes 12 of them. These include the blue-spotted, Cape turtle, cinnamon, emerald-spotted, laughing, mourning, Namaqua, olive pigeon (aka Kameron/Cameron), red-eyed and tambourine doves, along with the green pigeon and the rock dove, the common pigeon of North America. Most can be found in east and southern Africa. SCI requires that a hunter take nine of these species to qualify for their awards program.

Sandgrouse

Sandgrouse are the most-revered of Africa’s gamebirds, having been referenced in much of the classic African hunting literature. They are fast-flying birds similar to a pigeon, although they’re dressed in natural browns as are typical partridge. The SCI program includes four species – the Burchell’s, the double-banded, the Namaqua and the yellow-throated. All are found in southern Africa, with Namibia and Botswana the recognized epicenters. To qualify for the sandgrouse award, three of these species must be collected.

Ducks

There are more than two-dozen duck species present across Africa, though SCI has selected only 12 as part of their program, focusing on those found in southern countries. These include the African black, the Cape shoveller, the Cape teal, the fulvous whistling duck, the Hottentot teal, the comb (knob-billed) duck, the red-billed and yellow-billed teal, the South African shelduck, the southern pochard, the white-backed duck and the white-faced duck. Qualification for the awards program requires that a hunter take a minimum of nine of these species.

Geese

The program classifies three goose species, including the Egyptian goose, the spur-winged goose (the largest goose in the world) and the pygmy goose, which is actually a duck despite its name. All are widely distributed across much of East and southern Africa. To qualify for the African Geese award, all three species must be taken.

 

Birds to be submitted for consideration in the program are not measured as is required with big game animals. Rather, SCI requires that a field photograph showing the distinguishing characteristics of each bird be submitted. To protect the ethical considerations of the program, SCI further stipulates that:

  1. Each species must have been hunted by a legal method within the country where it is harvested;
  2. That each species must have a known population status;
  3. That birds be harvested during a specified hunting season for the species; and
  4. That the species be recognized as either an upland game bird or waterfowl species by the SCI Game Birds Committee.

It is not clear from their program promotional material, but the wording in SCI’s online description of the awards program suggests that birds beyond those specifically listed on the awards submission form would be accepted provided they meet the four criteria identified above.

For many years hunters have been shooting birds as an add-on to their big-game hunts, a relaxing diversion when they have an afternoon off or are looking for a little variety for the stewpot. It wasn’t really until the 1980s that we saw any outfitters catering specifically to wingshooters, and that effort met with largely mixed results. In recent years, however, we’ve seen a resurgence in both the interest in bird hunting and the number of outfitters offering dedicated wingshooting safaris. Hunters seeking a truly mixed-bag hunt that includes birds are advised to check out the promises their prospective outfitter makes. Having birds on the landscape and a shotgun or two in camp doesn’t equate to a professional wingshooting safari outfitter. Those outfitters with a dedicated bird program know how to hunt birds, have all the gear required, including decoys for many of the species, and run quality dogs, usually pointers for the upland species and retrievers for waterfowl hunts. It pays to check references if you’re serious about spending a few days, or an entire safari, focusing on bird hunting.

What separates African wingshooting from that offered around most of the rest of the world, is Africa herself. There remains to this day broad expanses of relatively untouched habitat, even in developed areas, and the diversity of bird and big game present is one of the great attractions. Where else will you see an English pointer lock up on a reedbuck ram hiding in the grass as I did on a greywing partridge hunt in South Africa’s Stormberg Mountains? Or watch giraffes, kudu, springbok and a host of other large mammals come in to a waterhole as you wait for the next flight of sandgrouse, as I experienced in Namibia?

When you get the Africa bug, as so many sportsmen have, you look for any excuse to go back. For those who’ve already checked the boxes for the big game they want, or for those who are avid wingshooters seeking a new destination, a dedicated African bird hunting safari may be just the answer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”View article in eZine” color=”chino” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fafricanhuntinggazette.com%2Fjuly-aug-sep-2019%2F%23africanhuntinggazette-ezine-july%2F96-97|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1563438682116-c72b66ba-21a3-4″ include=”22638,22639,22640,22641,22642,22643,22644″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

One for the Road

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Hurry, Hurry! Shoot! SHOOT!

(And other helpful comments.)

 

Towards the end of his career in Africa, Robert Ruark had one particular tracker named Metheke without whom, he wrote, “I feel naked in the bush.” He does not make it clear exactly who Metheke worked for when Ruark was not around. Presumably, it was one of the Ker & Downey professional hunters, but Metheke always seemed able to detach himself to accompany Ruark, no matter who he was hunting with at the time. Or so Ruark would have us believe. He was Man Friday to Ruark’s Robinson Crusoe.

 

Ruark was very adept at creating ideal situations that embed themselves in your mind, making you seek out such perfection on every hunting trip henceforth. Alas, perfection in hunting — and especially in hunting companions — is a very scarce commodity. On rare occasions I have met trackers in Africa who compare favorably with the sainted Metheke. Lekina Sandeti, a Masai who works for Robin Hurt in Tanzania, is one. Cuno, who worked for Chris Dandridge in Botswana, is another; I never did know Cuno’s surname. Nor did I know Charles’s surname, who was Clive Eaton’s tracker and always dressed in a shirt and hat more in keeping with a beach in Hawaii than on the track of a Cape buffalo. His attire belied his ability, however, which was second to none when it came to finding game and tracking it.

 

Books and stories from old Africa often depicted trackers and gun bearers in less than flattering terms. Some were outright racist to a point which, in this day and age, causes even the most non-politically-correct to cringe. Even those who purported to like and respect the safari staff were often condescending in their treatment of native people and their foibles. Most wrote about their trackers the way a wingshooter writes about a particularly gifted bird dog. Ruark, I hasten to add, did like and respect them. At times he was critical, but never condescending.

 

I don’t claim to be any less inherently racist — or at least, race-conscious — than other men of my age and background, but I have always tried to write about Lekina, Cuno, Charles, and the others in the same terms I wrote about the white professionals who headed up safaris. Perhaps this is because, 20 years before I ever went on safari in Africa, I went there as a freelance foreign correspondent and spent long periods living in grass huts, mud huts, and, on occasion, refugee and guerrilla camps. (Grass huts, by the way, are the most comfortable, and you become fond of the lizards that scurry around.)

 

In the course of that and later such expeditions, I learned enough Swahili to get by, or at least enough to show the trackers I was making the attempt, and this always seemed to put them on my side. Earning the respect of your trackers is, of course, the best case. Failing that, not incurring their enmity is something to be desired. One time, I was told about a client in Botswana, hunting with some Bushmen, who made the mistake of treating them badly, constantly denigrating them and generally being a boor. It has been my experience that people respond in kind, and that a little politeness goes a long way. At any rate, the Bushmen determined on some revenge. Knowing they could go long periods without water, while the fat American needed a drink every fifteen minutes, they took him out one morning and did a long, looping circle under the hot sun, with no water. Hours later, dehydrated, hallucinatory, and almost dead with fatigue, they delivered him back to camp. I don’t know whether he changed his ways, but the guides certainly got a bit of their own back.

 

Sometimes it’s not a matter of respect, mutual or otherwise, but simply competence. For every superb Lekina or Cuno, I have met trackers and other staff that seem to have been hired at short notice out of the local saloon, and have no more idea about hunting than if they’d been hired to teach quantum physics. One time, I was trying to locate a wounded wildebeest in the thick bush of Natal. With no tracks or blood trail, going back the next day to search for it was like looking for the proverbial needle, but we had to try.

 

We split up, with the PH and one tracker going one way, and a tracker and me going the other. By some miracle, a lone wildebeest bull appeared on an open slope about 200 yards distant. We had no shooting sticks, and no convenient tree. I was studying the bull in my binoculars while the tracker gesticulated wildly, insisting it was the wounded animal. My only chance was an offhand shot.

 

“Hurry!” he shouted. “Shoot! Shoot!”

 

Already out of breath, nervous, I tried to place the dancing crosshairs somewhere near the shoulder, and yanked the trigger with predictable results. The bull melted into the undergrowth. My guide looked at me, practically in tears. “Why you not shoot?” he asked, obviously thinking that killing an animal with a rifle required nothing more than pointing it in more or less the right direction and pulling the trigger. The wounded bull — if it was our bull — was gone, then and for all time. I should add that it was a hell of a head.

 

Guides like that make you even more nervous and likely to miss. Others, like Lekina, know that their own chances of survival go up considerably if they keep you calm in a tight situation, and try to make things easier rather than harder. Shouting “Shoot, shoot!” when the client is either not ready, or not in a good position to do so, accomplishes all the wrong things.

 

I’ve heard of, although I’ve never experienced, the extreme case of a guide running on ahead to try to spot a wounded animal, and then turning around and shouting to the hunter to “Shoot!” when he can’t even see it from where he is. And, naturally, the shout then spooks the beast to make tracks.

 

On my first safari in Botswana, my professional hunter was a Tswana by the name of Patrick Mmalane, a Sandhurst graduate and captain in the Botswana Defence Force. He had signed on as a professional hunter with Safari South. Naturally, he being black as the ace of spades, I insisted on referring to him as my “white hunter,” which caused great mirth among the trackers. Since Patrick and I both held the Queen’s Commission, we declared our end of the dining table to be the officers’ mess. We became quite good friends, and I went back the following year for a four-week odyssey wherein we drove around Botswana, wingshooting, seeing the sights, and setting a number of local beer-drinking records.

 

Patrick eventually left hunting and rejoined the BDF, and the last I heard he was a lieutenant-colonel. I mention all this because it was interesting to see his relationship with our trackers. They were Bushmen, in whole or in part, and as at home in the bush as Patrick and I were on a drill square. While Patrick was good with a rifle, and held command in an easy grip, he was not a tracker, and game spotting was not his long suit. The trackers treated him with the same somewhat bemused respect that an experienced sergeant-major accords to a newly appointed young officer.

 

In the end, we all proved ourselves to each other — and earned whatever respect we had — through our own abilities, and by the end of the week, one Cape buffalo bull and several lesser species later, we all got along with a kind of easy familiarity. Everyone did his job, no one screwed up, and we had a pretty happy ship.

 

It would be nice to be able to say that eventually I ended up with one tracker who did for me what Metheke did for Ruark, but those were other days. A tracker/gun bearer/factotum of the Metheke stamp is either a distant memory or, more likely, an ideal that never really existed — certainly not for visiting client-hunters like Ruark, or me.

 

One of my most treasured memories of hunting in Africa, however, is when, on my second safari with him, Lekina Sandeti invited me to be a guest in his hut, and to drink a cup of the buttermilk-like concoction that is a staple of Masai life. This was, I was told by my PH, a great honor. Whether Metheke ever did the same for Robert Ruark, I don’t know. As I say, those were different times[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”View article in Ezine” color=”chino” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fafricanhuntinggazette.com%2Fjuly-aug-sep-2019%2F%23africanhuntinggazette-ezine-july%2F146-147|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Artist Profile: Debra Cooper

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]An innate knack for drawing, an encouraging art teacher, and a passion for wildlife have inspired and motivated Debra to take her art to legendary levels.

Debra was born in Manistee Michigan, a little tourist getaway on the coastline of Lake Michigan. Most of her schooling was in the Manistee area, and she graduated from Manistee High School with three passions: her family, her community, and her talent.

Like any artist, she had a number of influences in her life which have guided her style, the greatest being that of her high school art teacher, Ken Cooper. Ken was always a source of encouragement; he knew she was mostly self-taught, but often reminded her that the origins of one’s art didn’t matter – it was just the talent and desire to run with it. It was his words that gave her the drive, and self-confidence, to take her art even further. And it wasn’t until Debra started working for Legends, that she began to see other styles that resonated with her, the most influential being those of John Benovich and Craig Bone. Their paintings depict a hauntingly realistic perspective of the wildlife they portray and, said Debra, “It was wonderful to meet these great artists in person at some of the venues I have attended.”

Debra has chosen to focus on wildlife for one particular reason – the animals. As a young girl living in Michigan, she was blessed to have the opportunity to witness the antics of the local wildlife. From her back door she could see a whitetail deer nibbling on fruit in the orchards, a groundhog chasing around the yard, and even the entertaining hunts of the family cat! Animals are an intricate part of our environment, and it is her desire to capture it in her artwork.

With her current position at Legends, she has had the privilege to appreciate animals, from around the globe, portrayed in their natural habitat, from the plains of Nevada, the snowy landscapes of Alaska, showrooms in Honduras, to the shores of North Africa. However, by far, her favorite creature to paint is the elephant. Awesome behemoths, these animals have an array of emotions that humans may find difficult to comprehend – they offer a subject she finds utterly fascinating.

Debra feels that painting creatures such as the elephant are essential for African conservation efforts. “We have such a Western view of conservation, we focus so much on preserving the cycle of life that we forget that hunting, and breeding programs are a part of that cycle. Working with the Legends Consortium, I have witnessed firsthand how artwork reminds everyone that in order to protect wildlife, we must accept the entire cycle. From birth, to play, to death, to exhibition, every step is a part of the process to save these great beasts.”

The mechanics of Debra’s artwork can be broken down simply: she is a huge fan of acrylic paints! “Acrylic paints dry fast and are easy to paint over which gives the flexibility to make adjustments after the fact. That being said, the speed of drying makes it difficult to make correction on the fly, so the greatest advantage is also the downside!” Typically, inspiration will strike when she least expects it. “I’ll be watching my grandchildren play outside, and then the imagery will begin to form. This leads to a bit of digging, through a variety of mediums, to better understand the scene in my head. I will look through a hodgepodge of photos and videos of the animals in question. Photographs will often illustrate muscles and how the limbs of the creature will stretch and interact in life. This leads to the work itself. Gradually bringing to life a creature via bits of graphite and acrylic paint, is an indescribable feeling of creativity.”

Debra has been often asked what makes her artwork unique, something she finds difficult to answer. “I suppose it is because I paint on animal hides, which is a bit of a rarity! For me, to see an animal painted on its corresponding hide just has a certain amount of finality, a fitting tribute.”

 

Contacts:

www.DebraCooperWildlifeArt.com

info@legendstaxidermy.com

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Loxodonta Africana

Loxodonta Africana

What a powerful name for the world’s greatest land animal.

Today, the landlocked, small southern African country of Botswana, with a little over a million people took arguably the biggest decision in living memory (or mine anyway) regarding how it manages its own wildlife.

This is an arid country, with an average rainfall of 440mm, less than half the world’s average. It is dependent on exporting some of the world’s best diamonds, hugely reliant on beef exports and in particular, exporting its ecotourism experience as it showcases the world’s greatest wetland – the Okavango Delta. But the cross it has to bear is the unenviable task of managing a natural behemoth. A monster that consumes 26 000 (twenty-six thousand) tons, or 58 000 000 (fifty-eight million) pounds of foliage a day!

This is the herd of Botswana’s African elephants and Africa’s largest by miles. Conservatively speaking at 130 000 animals – number many questions being too low, they consume 200kg of leaves and grass, each …a day!

Some of the variables and factors this country has had to grapple with include:

  1. Listening to, consulting with, empathizing, working out how to compensate the rural communities who have the ongoing challenge of the human-wildlife conflict to deal with. These beasts raid and destroy their crops and livelihoods and when working with and for the safari operators in the remote rural areas – they stood to benefit from this challenging dilemma. They are at the centre of where this is all happening.
  2. Pleasing photo tourists who want to experience these beasts up close and personal on foot, on a boat or on the back of a land cruiser and seldom understand the concept of sustainable utilization or the challenges of human-wildlife conflict.
  3. Keeping ivory poachers away as they’ll do anything to satisfy the demand for illegal ivory markets, particularly when they have no resistance.
  4. Hunters who are prepared to pay handsomely for a limited number of trophy bull elephants each year through operators that manage the more remote areas not utilized by tourists.
  5. A lucrative side industry from the management of elephant numbers, call it culling. This benefits thousands of local inhabitants with arguably one of the purest forms of a renewable, sustainable utilization of resources, that after all is theirs.
  6. Animal rightists who want zero hunting anywhere – let alone in Botswana. They start petitions and campaign for eco-tourists to boycott Botswana should they opt to lift its ban on hunting.
  7. Photographic safari operators, who are disguised animal rightists, working with National Geographic of all companies, who want everything on their terms and even went into business with the ex-President as a tactic to close down hunting and are still today, very powerful eco-tourism players.
  8. You have ‘editors’ and journalists bringing out books, one most recently called the Last Elephant – (as if these animals are on the verge of extinction) that conveniently sideline Namibia’s elephant success story who coincidently work with communities in an even drier country with way less elephant to manage and it is prospering.

 

All this is happening while there is a tsunami of international pressure, from ‘Conservation bodies,’ interested groups, countries, politicians, celebrities, all seeking their moment in the sun – around a topic they know nothing, at worse, or very little at best, about.

This is a Botswana problem – not a global, African, or a southern African problem.

And so, as the press conference starts at 1400 on the 23rd of May 2019, explaining why they have lifted the ban on hunting elephant, I salute this great country.

What a bold decision, taken for the right reasons, in the face of such adversity. What a lesson for us all.

Click here to view the letter of The Botswana Lifting of Ban


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