A HUNTER'S TALES - A HUNTER'S TRAILS |
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The Capture-Hunting of Black RhinoThis book contains the most incredible big game hunting stories ever told. Over a period of seven years, Ron Thomson pioneered the capture of black rhinos in the Zambezi Valley. With the extreme need for silence, he often took up to four hours to stalk the last 100 yards to get within ten yards range of his sleeping quarry. He needed to get that close to find an opening in the heavy brush though which he could shoot the rhino with a tranquillizer dart. All hell then broke loose. He could never have a second man near him with a heavy caliber rifle to protect him should the rhino get him down. Why? Because two people made twice as much noise as one. These stories tell us how Ron carried out these extraordinary capture-hunts and how he survived to tell us these stories. An average Black Rhino bull stands 5 feet 3 inches tall at the shoulder and weighs 2 000 lbs. An average White Rhino bull is 6 feet 6 inches tall at the shoulder and weighs up to 5000 lbs. What the black rhino lacks in comparative size, however, it makes up for in serious truculence. The black rhino is a browser (it eats green sticks and leaves) and it lives and sleeps in thick bush throughout the daylight hours. The white rhino is largely diurnal and a grazer, and it lives in family groups in short open grassland. The black rhino is solitary and nocturnal. So it is considerably more dangerous to approach and to dart a black rhino than to approach and to dart a white rhino. Ron Thomson and his team captured 140 of these prehistoric creatures during his seven years of pioneer capture work. His colleagues said of Thomson’s black rhino hunting capabilities: “He is in a class of his own”. Three of his colleagues were gored. |
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Hunting the African LeopardThe leopard is much smaller than a lion being rarely taller than knee-high to an average man, and 130 lbs (60 kgs) in weight. They are nocturnal animals and normally solitary. They are extremely secretive, agile and like the lion, they don’t need much cover to hide away during the day. Unlike lions when a leopard sees a hunter approaching, if it doesn’t slink away, it will lie unmoving and silent. So, when it attacks, the animal will seemingly come fast and furiously, and unexpectedly, from very close quarters. They tend to avoid conflict with the hunter, however, but, when pushed they are not averse to launching a surprise attack. Attacks are vicious and they hit the hunter at very great speed. As with the lion, the short stories in this compendium recite, mostly, hunts made on stock-killing leopards. |
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Hunting the African LionShooting a lion which comes to a bait, from a hide, is not hunting. Hunting a lion by the walk-and-stalk method (i.e. following its tracks on foot) is the only ethical way to sport hunt a lion. Lions, despite their great size can, seemingly, hideaway behind a single blade of grass. Lions are killers. More lions are killed by other lions than by anything else. And they are bigger and heavier than most people think – up to 4 feet tall at the shoulder and over 500 lbs (240 kgs) in weight. They are immensely powerful. And when they attack a pestering hunter they come at him at speeds only equaled by those of a champion race horse. When a lion sees a hunter approaching, it normally warns the hunter off with heavy growls. The short stories in this compendium, however, are not sport hunting events but tales about the hunting down of stock-killing lions; and man-eaters. These stories, however, can be more exciting than any kind of sport hunting. |
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Hunting the African BuffaloWhat is the most dangerous African big game animal to hunt? The myth is that is it the wounded buffalo. Not true! That reputation must go to the unwounded buffalo that is being relentlessly pursued by a persistent hunter. The unwounded buffalo is not hurting or incapacitated. So it is not afraid of the hunter who is sitting on its tale. It just more and more pissed off! The wounded buffalo, on the other hand, is sore and frightened. It is incapacitated by its wound. And it doesn’t want a second dose of the same medicine. So it keeps on running. When wannabe big game hunters understand this truth, the way they hunt buffaloes will change forever if the buffalo they are following doesn’t ‘take them out’ first. |
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Hunting the African ElephantThis book is a, at times, gut-wrenchingly personal account of hunting elephants in Africa. The author takes you on an intimate journey, and makes you feel you are right there with him, smelling the African dust and squashing your own fear as you face up to the tightest of Africa's beasts! |
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Hunting the HippopotamusIt is foolhardy to think of the hippo as being just a big, lumbering lump of lard. On land they are just as fast and just as nimble as any human athlete. Indeed, they will outrun and outmaneuver most human beings. They have large bodies that absorb bullets like a sponge, and they have relatively small brains that are difficult to hit. After the crocodile, hippos kill more people in Africa than do any other animal. And they have a wonderful and healthy red meat which makes great barbecue steaks and tasty biltong. They are, therefore, a very worthy quarry for hunters. There are some very interesting capture-hunts in the short stories in this compendium; some very unusual stories about hippo behavior at night; and the final story is about the nocturnal capture-hunt and translocation of a problem bull hippo that is too unusual for most people to believe. This selection will give most readers a completely new perspective about the African hippopotamus. |
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