Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Red-Flanked Duiker

Duikers are often an under appreciated trophy due to their diminutive size. Nonetheless, they are a challenge to hunt and a worthy addition to any trophy room.

When I hunted bongo in the Sanga River basin of Cameroon, bongo where the subject of the morning hunt while duikers were the focus of the afternoon. The Pygmies have a fascinating method to call duikers. They squat at the base of a large tree, in an area that affords some 20 yards or more of vision, and call them. They hold their palm to their face, pinch their nose with the middle and ring fingers, and make a sound that is reminiscent of a Siamese cat in heat.

Duikers, being curious in nature, hear this strange sound and run up to investigate. The hunter is then required to spot the well camouflaged antelope in the shadows and snap off a quick shotgun blast of #1's to try to bag the quarry. It is one of the most unusually hunting methods I've been a part of, and great fun! My dear old dad, never could see them until after the fact. It drove him bonkers, and he cussed the very idea of going out every afternoon for more of it. That had considerable entertainment value all by itself. It is also possible to blow the duikers to kingdom come with a shotgun.

They make a nice full mount is you don't atomize them, and don't take up much space.

red flanked duiker that I saw in North Cameroon in january were very different looking. Must be enviromental difference. Do you have picture of bongo and duiker together for scale.

Nice mount Jeff. Currently we only have one full sized mount, a Limpopo Bushbuck, but I sure do wish I had the room for more. Not to get off topic, but I'm still licking around the leopard hunt or buffalo & PG in Tanzania in 2011 at the earliest. jorge

I haven't taken a photo with the bongo and the duiker, but that would be quite a contrast.


Funny how superstitions go. Pygmies don't poach bongo because they believe eating the meat will make them sterile. I wonder how that got started?

Try this photo for another look at the Red Flanked duiker:

http://www.scienceviews.com/photo/browse/SIA3173.jpg

Jorge-You've got to think Leopard AND buffalo. Can't hunt in that part of the world and not do the bovine. Are you bold enough to use the Sharps?

Well I did think cat and buff, but two different countries & PHs. Tanzania is NUTS for what you have to book for leopards, but buffs and SOME PG are still reasonable on a 10 day hunt. I think for leopard you need at least 14 days and for that I'll go to Zim and John Sharp. jorge

Forgot to add, hell yes I'd consider taking the Sharps, but not for the leopard and while I have no doubts a 45-110 will handily take a buffalo, my personal choice is NOT to do it with a single shot. But if the situation lends itself, I'd go for it.

Hatari,
Nice mount. I got to hunt blue duiker in Kansoso-Busanga Zambia. We did not call them but sat a blind under a wild fig tree that was actively dropping fruits. Elegant little animals.

A full mounted duiker, grysbok or steenbok is on my list. I think they'd look cute peeking out from around the end of the couch.

That just doesn't look like a red flank to me and I have seen them in cameroon. Its horns for instance are enormous and the legs are not right to my eye (too tall).

Obviously you would know, so I am not picking a fight. I just wondered about it. When I hunted bongo they didn't have red flanks on the list even allthough they appear to cover that area.

Its a puzzle to me, in fact I signed up just because of it. If you don't mind telling the story of the hunt I would love to read it.

Cameroon is filled with Duikers. There is the Bay, Black, Yellow Backed, Red Forest, Western Red, Peter's and others. I am by no means a duiker expert. These were represented to me as Red-Flanked, and due to the coloring and black on the legs, it fits that description. As for the horns, SCI requires 7"+ for the book.

The hunt is pretty much as described about. We would go out in the morning and track bongo and return for a 1 p.m. lunch and siesta. About 3 p.m., we'd go out in the forest with the pygmy trackers and sit down in front of a large tree that afforded some 20-30 yards of vision. The head tracker would place his hand to his face, pinch his nose, and cry like a tomcat in heat. Duikers would come and investigate the sound, and my job was to spot them and snap off a quick shot with the shotgun before they took off.

I blew the back end off of a Bay Duiker that got a little close. #1's will do some damage at 10 yards! Had to do the world's smallest shoulder mount on that guy. My Dad swore he never saw one that approached. There was some shooting and missing as the bounded away.

It is a very interesting way to hunt. We were treated to lowland gorillas as we walked in the forest. They would spot us and gather up their fruit and high tail it into the thick stuff. If you snuck up on a male, he would snort and grunt and then make tracks. They are very impressive in the wild. The pygmies were often annoyed by the [bleep], who were a problem eating their crops. They had respect for a family of [bleep], because unlike the gorillas or baboons, the [bleep] would use sticks as weapons to fight off the pygmies.

Thank you Hatari.