Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Bush Pig in Madagascar?

anybody hunted in Madagascar, more specifically bush pig? When I lived there I knew of some expats that hunted wild pig on occasion and were able to get permits to bring in their guns, but never heard of anyone specifically going there to hunt. I never got a chance to hunt there or ask any clarifying questions of the guys who did. I'm in the process of starting a business to do work there and thought I might look into expanding in the hunting direction, if feasible.

thanks!
advntrjnky

I believe large parts of Madagascar are completely inaccessible and that wildlife is rather limited. But from the very limited experience I have of the island it would be worthwhile looking up the hotels on the Northern side. Polish your French as many inhabitants speak only French.

Yeah, i lived in the north and that's where i knew of people hunting bush pig. I'm not sure about other parts of the country. Where i lived the locals hunted waterfowl and crocs for food. I speak malagasy, so no need for french for me.

Advntrjnky

Would be interesting, provided there are species available that would draw foreign hunters. I am not aware that Madagascar is open to foreign hunters but could certainly be wrong on that.

Like all insular eco-systems, Madagascar has a lot of unique wildlife (lots of lemur species) but most of these wouldn't qualify as "big game".

Intriguing, like I said, but there would need to be a species or two to get hunters interested.

you guys had me confused as i couldnt figure out what you were talking about as there are no pig species native to Madagascar......only thing that would qualify as native big game would be crocs......turns out bushpigs have been introduced to the island....

They don't know for sure if the bush pigs are native or how/when they were introduced. There are a few theories, but they have been there longer than modern written history. Two different sub-species of bush pig are listed, but there is debate as to whether they aren't the same. I'm going to look into it more and see if it would be a viable offshoot business to start. The locals offered to show me how they catch crocs, but i never got the chance. It sounded to me like the ones they caught weren't more than about 2meters in length. I think they had bigger ones in the area but didn't go after them due to difficulty in handling the big ones.

Advntrjnky

in all reality, Madagascar hasnt been populated for long and interestingly enough it was populated by people from Borneo over 1000 years before anyone made the trip over from Africa....

One possible way of getting animals introduced to foreign countries is by way of ship wreck.

true.....guess im not that familiar with bushpigs, short of being caught to ship to a zoo are they really messed with much? wasnt under the impression that they were even sorta domesticated at some point.....i know there is fossil evidence of hippos making it across the channel in enough numbers to start a breeding group that eventually diversified into 3 species that shrunk as normally happens when large animals hit islands but they were extinct well before Europeans showed up....

I'm not sure how much interest there is in hunting them? I want to hunt mainland africa in the near future and really only have a want to hunt warthog and bush pig.....maybe a Buffalo eventually, but that is it. I also have spent a bit of time in Madagascar and got quite fond of the people and places. Like I mentioned earlier, I will be doing some work there in the future and thought it would be fun to see what it would take to open up a small operation to allow foreign hunters to go after Bush Pig there.

It looks like Nile Crocs are now somewhat threatened in Madagascar, so Bush Pig is probably the only big game huntable there, which as mentioned earlier would limit interest even more.

Advntrjnky

would love to visit some time but im interested in weird critters.....and like most islands Madagascar is full of weird critters.....

I was stationed at the US Embassy in Tana from 79 to 81 and never ran across anyone that hunted there. My Malagasy girlfriend (later wife) took me fishing a few times, but hunting was never suggested. Her family didn't own any guns that I know of and I never met any other locals that owned guns either. Other than the couple of maky that we had as pets and the pitiful zoo in town, I never recall seeing any sort of wildlife near the capital.

wow! It must have been amazing in Tana back then! was the movie theater on Rue de Independance still open for regular business? There are rumors that there was a McDonalds during that time period.....do you know if that is true? That's also before the Chinese built all of the modern roads. Did you ever get out into the countryside? The only thing I really ever heard of being "hunted" on the plateau around Tana are tenrecs (Madagascar's version of the hedgehog). That was by locals for food, and not with firearms. I know of native Malagasy and expats that have shotguns, and expats that have handguns for self defense. the handguns had to be of a non-military caliber......40S&W seemed the cartridge of choice.

Advntrjnky

McDonald's? The closest thing we had to McDonald's were the guys grilling up mystery meat stuck on pieces of wire over their charcoal grills. They always told us it was Zebu....but you never were really sure. After a few Three Horses it didn't matter anyway.

Ratsiraka was still consolidating power after his coup and the government was pretty hostile to Americans at that time so we were restricted to travel within 50 kilometers of Tana. We did push the limits occasionally and got around a little bit of the countryside. You couldn't go very far out of town before the roads turned pretty bad anyway. The French had built a pretty respectable road system, but after they left it went downhill pretty fast. The North Koreans were establishing a presence there by supposedly training Ratsiraka's Presidential Guard. The Chinese had just started to move in and had started construction on a big embassy complex. Of course the Russians were around too.

My wife returned a couple of times to visit during the 80's and she always remarked that everyday life was getting harder and harder for the people there....shortages of food and everyday items, more beggars and people living on the street, infrastructure looking more rundown. We have since parted ways and I haven't kept up on what's been happening there, but I'd still like to return for a visit someday.