dr.kol
11333
There are a lot of misunderstandings.
Mar 02, 2015,15:53 PM
First of all, I have done my Big Five and I do not need to go for those anymore.
My wife is absolutely okay with my hunting. She knows that I can shoot (at least a little bit).
The best way of protecting rhinos is to hunt them in strictly limited amounts and legally. In most of the places where rhino is legally hunted, most of the fees go back to nature conservation and prevention of poaching. And rhino hunts are bloody expensive! Only old, non-breeding males are hunted and mostly in areas where the rhino population exceeds the carrying capacity of the nature.
Rhino hunting is nowadays very ethical and some people prefer the "green hunts" meaning darting of the rhino, taking some photos and waking the rhino up.
When RSA and Namibia opened legal but strictly limited rhino hunting, the population of rhinos started to grow again. The point is that the rhino has a very hight commercial value and thus, everything possible is done to prevent poaching.
Rhino hunting is nothing very special. Many people say in Africa that you hunt elephant with your feet, lion & Mr. Spots with your brains, buffalo with your guts and rhino with your wallet. That's pretty much true. Elephants you track from early morning and one can easily walk some 30 km per day in the killing heat. The cats are very clever and some good strategies are needed. Buffalo is scary especially when hunting in jesse bush or very high grass. Finally, rhino is a relatively primitive animal.
I will be 60 next year. Most probably I will guide my wife in Africa still a couple of times. She's a brave chick and a bloody good shooter. I think I have done most of my hunting in several continents and in the future I will take every year a roebuck or two for the pot and perhaps shoot a wild boar for the relatives of my wife. Naturally also some snow grouse in Lapland for the pot. The rest of the leisure time I will try to learn a bit about watches...
If you ever want to hunt and get the excitement in full, I would say that the best hunting is not in Africa but you can experience that in North America, Europe and Asia:
Ursus Arctos!
Best, Kari