japantiger

Can't wait to see your reaction when I post this summers upcoming hunts...

Make sure you post about it on here when you hunt . Look forward to seeing the photos.

Animals taken in South Africa are back in Houston. US Fish and Wildlife sent me the import permit for the leopard; so in a couple of months most of the Zambia animals will be head this way. Waiting for the Elephant and Lion permits to work their way thru the bureaucracy.

That was a great day. After the game was over, a group of us old farts that didn't want to leave the stadium congregated in front of the ESPN broadcast desk and just sat there until they made us leave. We all looked at each other with that knowing look that it had been all our lives waiting for for that day.

Mostly other males either outright kill or weaken another male to the extent it is vulnerable to other pray animals. The young are the most vulnerable to predators. But the reality of Africa is every animals death is the result of predation and violence. It's not a Disney movie.

Short answer is yes...on being an attacking/aggressive species. They move out of the lakes or rivers foraging for food; mostly at night. The old huge males love getting into a big pond left by receding water during the dry season to be away from rival males and the cows/calves. They will just set out in the middle of the pond defending it from all comers. Most of the males have huge scares on their bodies from all the fighting they do when in the bigger bodies of water. I think you can probably see them on the one I shot in the photo's on this thread. I watched a hippo fight in the Luangwa in Zambia. They approached each other from a couple hundred yards apart; and then the water just boiled...with their big bodies flying up out of the water; which is remarkable considering they can launch those big bodies into the air. It lasted a full 2 minutes before one retreated. I couldn't tell how wounded either was at the distance we were. They will come back to the bigger body of water usually on the same trail during the night or before the sun gets up too high. They attack when surprised while foraging; or when you get between them and their water on their return. They go from 0 to pissed off in an instant. I think I told the story of the 3 people attacked on the Okavango while I was in Namibia on this trip. In each case, a hippo was returning to the river and attacked.

Hippo outside my cabin early AM in Zambia...

You get animals in the camp most nights. In Zambia had a hippo, hyena and leopards that came thru most nights...the hippo would be quite noisy grazing in the middle of the night. Hyena can either "whoop" as they move around or just walk thru; but they're not usually too silent as they walk thru. The leopards didn't make noise; but you saw the tracks when you came to breakfast. On previous trips (in Namibia and Tanzania) have had leopard, lion and hyena come thru. The elephants come thru and snap off and strip trees during the dry season looking for water. It sounds like a gun going off when the trees snap...that's usually what wakes you up.

Everything is eaten....and I mean everything. I didn't realize until I saw it that you could skin an elephant ear, dry it and eat it. I can't remember if I talked about Hippo; but I shot one for the big fall festival in Zambia...the locals love the mountain-oysters (deep fried) and hippo tail soup; in addition to the parts you would expect folks to like. The cook made hippo mountain oysters, hippo tail soup and backstrap....we called it "sack, crack and back"..... Buffalo is fantastic and all the various plains game is pretty good eating...some better than other, but everyone's tastes are a little different.

Range Card for .375 H&H with Barnes ammunition

Chinsembwe, Zambia...representative of all the villages in rural Africa...this one actually in a little better shape than most.

Did the Range Card photos work? they are showing on my feed.

Leopard Blind below: Every day a new Elephant encounter. On one particular night we heard elephants moving around all around us within about 10minutes of sunset. When they would get too close, I'd start tapping my rifle barrel with a bullet, and the PH would turn and shine a lite in their direction. The noise and/or light usually steers them away. The noise got loud all of a sudden and the PH couldn't see where the animal was. He stood up to look over the blind top and his eyes went wide. He looked at me and said "tap"....the Asst PH was now turned in his chair and his eyes showed visible concern. The PH reached for his 458 Lott and shouldered it. The Asst PH was shining a lite in the direction of the elephant and I was tapping like hell!!! My morse code is a little rusty, but I think I was tapping "tell my wife I love her" and "get me the hell out of here". Or it could have just been "OOOOHHHHHH SSSHHHHHIIIIIITTTTTT" Either way, I was tapping the barrel and trying to turn around to see. My rifle is tied into the blind so it will rest in near shooting position so I don't have to move much when shooting time comes. It was facing toward the bait; away from the river where the elephant had come up from behind us. To give you a view of how close and how big the elephant was, the PH's rifle was pointed up at about a 75 degree angle. His trunk bumped the back of the blind. A big bull. It was a pretty tense few moments. You could hear him rumbling what seemed like forever...he finally backed away and moved on. We had to tap and shine the light a couple more times before things settled down. When we finally gave up l the truck pulled up and the hunting team jumped out and then we heard a big thud and crunch behind us. A hyena (we thought) had come in after all the elephants settled down and just laid down behind our blind. The truck startled it and it was in a hurry to get away and crashed into the blind. We had heard him earlier "whooping' maybe 15 - 20 yds from the blind to some of his buddies nearby. When he stopped, he came over to us. The Asst PH had been in as bad a position as I was. From where he was sitting, he had his rifle across his knee with a lite in his hand... even if he could shoot his rifle would have been useless to land a killing blow...it would have just pissed the elephant off shooting him someplace ineffective to stop him. As for the the PH, had he had to I am sure he could have delivered a killing brain shot; at an extremely steep angle, but all a matter of lining up the ear holes and hitting the elephant where the shell passes thru to the brain. Then the question is where does the elephant fall? A brain shot takes the back legs out from under the elephant. So that's good. At least he'd likely not fall forward on us and kill us all. But as he falls, which way does he roll? And do his tusks extend out just far enough to impale the PH and whoever is on the falling side as he rolls that way? The PH would likely get it though...he was only a yard or so from the nose of the animal. Now, if the Asst PH bought it, at least he would go out with a gun in his hand facing toward the elephant. There would be glowing articles written in Game Tracker mag about the two valiant PHs going down with a gun in their hands. On the other hand, if I bought it, the examination of the "puddle" that used to be me would say the terrified hunter was facing away from the elephant (probably say trying to run away) having discarded his weapon and tragically carrying only a single bullet in his hand forever shaming his family and bringing disgrace to his house..... We finally got to talk about this encounter about 12 hours later. The PH said he would not have brained the bull for the very reason I stated . He said his plan was shoot him high on the head to knock him back a few steps and then brain him. He showed photos of a PH that had been crushed in just such an incident . The elephant landed on him from his chest down... grizzly death

While I was in Namibia, one morning the Game Warden pulled up just a little late and just looked like hell. We all immediately thought he'd been out drinking all night. Turns out in two separate incidents the night before hippo's had attacked on the Okavango near Rundu. A woman was bringing in fishing nets and was attacked by a hippo. The husband heard her screaming and came to her aid. They were both killed. In a separate incident, a 15 year old boy had his leg and genitals bitten off. He survived the night at least. The Game Warden had been up all night tracking one of the hippos...he found it and killed it. The other hippo was not found. The below miracle happened recently...hippo's kill more humans than any other animal by a wide margin.... https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hippo-swallows-2-year-old-whole-then-spits-him-out-alive

No...they spend most of their time with me in the room.

A recent add to the right of the fireplace: