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Monarch of the Mountain
An incredible mountain nyala taken in Ethiopia is the second-largest ever.
Rich Elliott of Ethiopian Rift Valley Safaris reports that on the morning of September 27, Henry McNatt from Florida, hunting with Nassos Roussos of Ethiopian Rift Valley Safaris, took what could easily be among the greatest African trophies ever taken. Hunting in the Munessa Forest Concession, Henry shot a mountain nyala with a horn that measures 43 4/8 inches in length and 11 1/8 inches in circumference. The second horn is only slightly shorter.
Henry McNatt of Florida with professional hunter Nassos Roussos shortly after the magnificent mountain nyala was taken in the Munessa Forest Concession of Ethiopia. When officially scored, it will likely rank as the second-largest ever taken.
This will likely make Henry’s mountain nyala the new SCI Number 2, beating Marc Watts’s remarkable mountain nyala that was taken with Nassos’s son, Jason, just two years ago. The SCI Number 1 mountain nyala is an incredible 48-inch bruiser taken by Nassos Roussos himself in 1984.
The mountain nyala, which lives in the high-altitude forests and heather zones of the Ethiopian highlands, is considered one of the most difficult African big-game species to hunt, and very few mountain nyala with horns longer than 40 inches have ever been taken.
McNatt tells us it rained a great deal in the Munessa. “Chains were put on the tires of the Toyota Land Cruiser in order for us to travel the mucky and deeply rutted roads,” he said. “We fly camped (tented) in a high mountain meadow surrounded by jungle. Walking was often treacherous in the mountains. Years of select timber cutting left loads of debris on the forest floor--all covered with a layer of creeping vines and secondary plant growth--just enough to hide the slippery roots and branches we seemed to step on every other step. Gaiters helped keep the streams of ants from crawling up our pant legs. There is special type of stinging nettle plant here that, I promise, feels like a yellow jacket has stung you . . .
“We did lots of walking and climbed all over the mountains in the thickest places looking for the elusive mountain nyala, and were rewarded on the eighth day with a 43.5-inch bull.”
This huge old lesser kudu, taken on the same safari, had broomed horns but still measured more than 35 inches.
And that’s not the end of the success story. Prior to hunting Munessa, McNatt and Roussos hunted in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley where they were also successful, taking a very old male lesser kudu with heavily broomed horns. The bull was estimated to have lost more than 1.5 inches of its original length, but still measured slightly over 35 inches. In its prime, this lesser kudu would have easily been the SCI Number 1—McNatt calls him the “Retired World Champ.”
These are two tremendous trophies that speak well of game management in Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Wildlife Department as well as conservation efforts by the outfitters in that country. The increasing success rates for mountain nyala, especially, show that controlled sport hunting is working as an effective tool in the conservation of these animals.
