African Hunter Published Books Hunter's Guide to Bowhunting the African Way | Page 14
bow, the better. OK, maybe a bit of an over-statement of the facts,
but it gives an idea of the extent of the sport. As with rifle hunting,
the actual collecting of a trophy during a hunt, is simply the
culmination of so much more.
Across the continent, there are hundreds of farms which lend
themselves to bow hunting. Those operations who have been running
bow hunting on smaller plots, say records prove that an area of 2 000
acres can support up to five bow hunts a year, while still maintaining
the basic standard of what constitutes fair chase hunting.
In 1999, Cawston Ranch, a well-known operation in Zimbabwe
and one of the bigger bow hunting operators utilising a 32 000 acre
hunting ranch, conducted 18 separate hunts, accounting for 233
animals. The average hunt ran for a duration of about 10 days, with
specialised species such as sable requiring 12 or more days. Typical
plains game hunts in Zimbabwe take ten days, while many operators
in South Africa offer a seven day hunt (for an average of 2/3
animals), and often at lower rates than the typical Zimbabwean
operator.
Pre 2000 and Zimbabwe‟s chaotic land reform program which saw
the nationalisation of all farms, Zimbabwe‟s bow hunting industry
was well set for growth. In Zimbabwe, bow hunting had a long, slow
and very shaky start, but through the increasing efforts of a dedicated
few, it slowly found its rightful place in the management policies of
land owners. Aided by the well-known bow hunting enthusiast, Ron
Oliver (a former military attaché with the US Embassy in
Zimbabwe), bow hunting was legalised in Zimbabwe on a trial basis
in 1988, and was eventually given full acceptance (for plains game
species) in 1996 following the CITES held in that year.
Subsequently, dangerous game species such as buffalo (often stalked
as well as shot with bows from blinds or stands), elephant, leopard
(taken from traditional leopard blinds but constructed much closer to
the bait - no more than 10 metres), and even hippo have been added
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