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Unexpected Opportunities
Sometimes the hunt you didn't plan to do turns out to be the best one of all.
By Craig Boddington
The fire was bright and it burned long into the night. We were hunting on the edge of Etosha National Park; at dusk Donna had shot a fine leopard, and we were celebrating properly when one of the landowners rolled in and joined us. He had just come from the game department, and he had in his hands two rare permits for problem lions. We'd been there long enough to see lots of lion tracks, and also to see how spooky the animals were. There were plenty of lions around, certainly enough to constitute a problem!
Because of its nomadic nature, the giant forest hog will most often be encountered while hunting something else. This is a good example of an animal that should be taken if you see one no matter what else you're doing!
The following morning, as we gathered around the coals, I was offered one of the permits. The price was considerable but fair, and also totally unbudgeted. But among the tracks we'd seen were the pug marks of a couple of huge males. The opportunity was as fantastic as it was unexpected. Donna and I talked it over. We couldn't afford it, but considering what was happening with lion hunting across Africa, could we afford not to?
Realistically, our answer was influenced by what I do for a living, and by the fact that we had a cameraman on hand. In other words, it wasn't entirely personal. Whatever the rationale, we said yes. A couple of days later I shot a wonderful old lion, almost certainly the last lion I will ever take.
A couple of months ago, Alain Smith and I were hunting blackbuck and hog deer in southern Pakistan, along the Indus River. Making conversation on the long drive from the Karachi airport, our outfitter told us there were lots of jackals and some kind of small wildcat in the area. Our ears pricked up. Yes, that was interesting, and we agreed to go out for some night hunting as possible. Alain had been in-country for ten days, and I had just arrived from the States. So I bagged it the first night, and Alain came in with a bobcat-size creature generally known as an Asian jungle cat. The next night, my turn, I took a golden jackal. Then we hunted together; Alain took a jackal and, shame on me, I missed a cat. The cross hairs wavered just as the trigger broke, and that was my only chance.
This lovely old Namibian lion, taken on an unexpected "problem animal" permit, is the greatest unexpected trophy of my life. When unexpected opportunity knocks, consider opening the door, even if it stretches the budget.
These are all good examples of what I call "incidental trophies." A lion is properly the primary goal of a major safari, and we certainly weren't thinking "king of beasts" until the chance came. But the chance did come, and we took advantage of it. Neither a jackal nor a jungle cat are adequate reasons to journey to Pakistan, but they were unexpected opportunities that we tried to take advantage of.
On any serious hunt, it's important to keep your eye on the ball. There may be other game around, but you don't want to get sidetracked and risk the primary goal. This is a judgment call. For instance, elephants are extremely sensitive and really smart. On most elephant safaris it's unwise to do any shooting until the jumbo is taken. On lion and leopard safaris, you want to focus on the cat. You will take animals as required for bait, but you must continue the process of scouting for sign, hanging baits, and checking your baits. On a lion hunt you might need to hunt buffalo for bait, but once that's done it's a bad idea to spend a day tracking buffalo when you should be checking baits. On the other hand, while checking baits there may be opportunities that won't interfere. In the Zambezi Valley, for instance, a lot of grysbok and the occasional monster kudu are taken while checking baits.
Some hunters believe that it's a better experience to hunt specifically for one animal at a time. In a perfect world they are probably correct, but I tend to think this is a carryover from days gone by when safaris were much longer. Today I'm pretty well convinced that this ethic, though admirable, may be unwise. The first time I hunted Derby eland I made up my mind that I would not take any game until the eland was in the salt. The first few days we saw great sing sing waterbuck, Lelwel hartebeest, and western kob, and we ran into a couple of herds of buffalo. At that time I had taken none of these animals, but we stayed focused on the eland. I didn't get one, and at the end all there was in the skinning shed was a western bush duiker and a red-flanked duiker.
Obviously it's silly and of questionable sportsmanship to take animals you don't want, but I think we all have stages in our hunting careers when we're not yet sure what we really want. And sometimes we don't fully understand the situation. For instance, when you're following a bongo track you are properly extremely focused and unlikely to be sidetracked. But what if another great forest prize like a giant forest hog or sitatunga suddenly appears? Today I know that there are a lot more bongo in the forest than sitatunga; and I know that giant forest hogs are so unpredictable as to be almost impossible to hunt on purpose. Today I would probably take the shot. It's good to think through the "what if" scenarios, no matter how unlikely, because when it happens there may not be time enough to think it through or talk it over.
Another huge mistake I made was on a hunt in Zambia in 1984. It had been a wonderfully successful safari, and at the tail end we went to Bangweulu to hunt sitatunga. We didn't get one, but that can happen so that wasn't the mistake. We saw a lot of black lechwe, and I could have taken one easily. However, so far the safari had been hugely successful, and I was over-budget on trophy fees. We had gone to Lochinvar south of Lusaka and had taken a huge Kafue lechwe; the black lechwe has shorter horns and many individuals aren't much darker. I elected not to take one.
A whopper of an East African bush duiker. Some of Africa's many pygmy antelopes require specialized hunting. Others, like the bush duikers, are more often encountered as targets of opportunity. Most have fairly limited ranges, so while the little guys usually aren't priorities, they should be hunted while you're in their areas.
That was dumb. There were, and are, several sitatunga areas, but the black lechwe, smallest of the lechwes, only occurs on the floodplains around Lake Bangweulu. A dozen years would pass before I got back up there and took one, and by then the costs had gone up considerably!
Most of us have budget constraints, and in areas that have a lot of different species, we develop prioritized wish lists of our most desired game. That's as it should be, but I think it's wise to do your homework and learn what animals a certain area might hold that may not be found elsewhere, or may occur in the highest quality or most favorable hunting conditions. It's a good idea to hunt these animals while you're there. Once you're there, trophy fees are generally considerably less than returning to the same area on a later hunt--even if the budget is stretched a bit.
Not all areas have options for extra or "incidental" trophies. In today's Africa, quota may not be available, especially for animals you didn't include on your list in the planning stages. Here in the United States, most hunting is single-species specialized, but there are occasional opportunities. Many hunters from other parts of the country haven't taken a javelina, which can easily be added to most Texas whitetail hunts. A lot of Eastern hunters have never taken a coyote, easily accomplished on many western hunts, but a separate small game license may be required.
Hunts in Canada and Alaska are more likely to be multi-species, with animals like wolves and wolverines key "incidentals." In fact, I would break off a stalk on even a sheep or a bear if I had a clean opportunity at either animal! So, in case a rare opportunity arises, you should know whether the season is open. If a separate tag or license is required, you should have it. I have never taken a wolf in North America, and I've never seen a wolverine when the season was open. But I've bought a lot of tags just in case, and if I continue to do so, maybe one of these days Lady Luck will smile!
