Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa A Survey: Favorite African Game

MD, they're one of my favorites too in terms of beauty and tastiness. I have one though and my list reflects it. If I hadn't gotten one, it'd be #2.

My favorites are the tiny guys. I've gotten steenbok, common duiker, Cape grysbok, and a klippie. I've tried unsuccessfully for Damara dik-dik, red duiker, blue duiker and others. For sheer hunting pleasure and consistent challenge, I don't believe that the pursuit of the tiny ones can be beat.

When I went this year, gemsbok were the top animal on my list, along with kudu. I got a kudu, but not a gemsbok. That's why I listed gemsbok and buffalo above kudu - I didn't get either of those! But I sure hope to next time.

Kudu
Eland
Gemsbok

Love the antelope...........

Kudu, Gemsbok and zebra if I ever get the chance. Rufous.

Rupert--

Maybe you missed the rules. Only your top three allowed!

Kudu have made a recent run and are once again tied with buffalo at 29. Bushbuck and eland tied for 3rd at 11. Behind them are several at 9: leopard, gemsbok, warthog, impala and elephant.

JB

i have no intention of hunting in africa but, if i were going to, i reckon i'd like to hunt the congo buffalo, a giant pangolin, and a bush pig... i've no idea if these species are huntable....

the pangolin is about the oddest looking critter i've ever seen....

Gemsbok
Kudu
Waterbuck

John: What the hell is a "pangolin"? Not being a wise guy, just never heard of it.

When I go, Cape Buffalo, Kudu, Sable.

kind of ant eater, looking a bit like a "tatu" ....

different species in the world are:

Manis culionensis
Manis gigantea
Manis temminckii
Manis tricuspis
Manis tetradactyla
Manis crassicaudata
Manis pentadactyla
Manis javanica

I personnaly would prefer 1) Forest buffalo (caffer nanus) 2) Greater Kudu 3) Crocodile or forest elephant ... can't choose between them ...

unfortunately, i think it's not possible to hunt all of those different species in the same country (but i find the prices you give are very high, i think it's quite cheaper in some central africa countries like RCA, Cameroun or mozambique)

Kudu now lead buffalo (of all subspecies) by one vote.

The prices I quoted wre from recent research, partly because a friend was planning to go on safari rather casually said he wanted a "good" WILD lion. I looked into lions and, since RSA and some other places have clamped down on canned lions, the price. Looked at Zim, which is still about the cheapest, but never found a photo of anybody with a "good" dead, lion. They all looked like they could use some time to grow up. (Sorry if somebody does not feel that way, but I hunted Botswana when they did ot allow any lion hunting, and there wee BIG lions there. I saw several.) Tanzania now has a rule that any lion taken must be at least six years old. Throw in the cost of the safari and yes, $50,000 is about minimum.

I was in South Africa in May, on a place where a sable was $8000. Throw in the daily rate for a week and that's an easy $10,000. So I priced a sable safari in Zim, and the cheapest one came to around $7000, daily rate + trophy fee. Throw in tips, charter flights, etc. and again you get close to $10,000.

If there is someplace much cheaper, for a WILD sable, I'd appreciate any info.

JB

i thought you were only writing about trophee fees but i' ve read about antelope safaris costing less than 15 000 euros, including airway.

i'll try to retrieve posts about those. Of course we fly to africa from europe, it could make a difference, but it seems tanzania is probably the most expansive destination. In addition i've heard they would increase their trophy fees of almost 100 % in 2007.

The big problem is that if you want a sable, everything goes up: daily rates, and often length of safari as well. So where trophy fees are still in the $2500 range, you still get stuck for other costs. Or you can go to RSA and pay less on the daily rate, and a lot more for the trophy fee.

In other words, they are not just another common antelope that you can include in a typical plains game safari anymore.

Tanzania is the most expensive destination, and I have heard about the possible price increases too. Don't know if they have been implemented or not yet, though.

Would be interested in hearing how much it costs to fly from Europe, if only out of curiousity. From the U.S. I have paid anywhere between $1500 and $2200 depending on the African destination in recent years.

JB

I'm not always the best at getting the deal but our flights from Minn to Chicago to Frankfurt to Windoek were at about $2600 a piece for my wife and I as booked through Gracys.

Gdv

It sounds as if from reading these posts that everything in Africa is on the upswing price-wise which I guess is no surprise.

Perhaps another survey would be opinions on the best countries all things considered for selected game.

Gdv

Goodnews,

Yeah, I know it is a little more expnsive going through Europe, but was curious how much it cost just for the European leg.

This thread is obviously winding down, so I also added up first-place votes, something I did on the North American survey as well. So far:

Buffalo--20
Kudu--15
Warthog--4
Gemsbok--3

Way to go, warthogs! The RSA trip I'm going on next year will include some warthog culling, which is just fine with me. I like to hunt all pigs--Sus scrofa, javelina, warthogs--big and little. The big ones may be a challenge, but the little ones taste best!

This 1st-place rating provides a little different slant, as the vast majority of the people who listed eland and bushbuck enough to make them 3rd on the overall list, did not put them first.

It also illustrates that the editor who said few people are interested in African game other than buffalo or kudu was pretty much right. But I am still going to run good hunting stories about just about anything. After all, hippo only got one mention on either of the lists, but I liked the story I received on them, and so am running it. At a certain point, a magazine editor must assume that he is somewhat of an average reader, and what is interesting to him should be interesting to other readers.

Either that, or....

JB

JB,
Since this seems to have run it's course I'd like to resubmit my answers pretending to be a typical member of the drive-by media.

1. Tiger
2. Water buffalo
3. Jaguar

SOS

Congratulations! Those are all endangered species, aren't they?

I have dropped hints about my favorites here and there, but now will make my own list, of truly African animals:

1) Aardvark. (How anybody could not put old AA first on any list is beyond my understanding.)

2) Okapi. I know they usually don't get much respect, especially when compared to bongo, because of their short horns, but as with nilgai, size has nothing to do with it.

3) Francolin. Did I ever actually say this had to be big game?

I am somewhat surprised that nobody listed forest hog.

JB