Lion Hunting
 

Lion Hunting
We have two options on hunting Lion in South Africa

Option 1.
We can hunt free roaming Lion in nature reserves.
This is a minimum of 21 x day hunt, with a reasonable success rate.
We can not determine, whether we are going to get a good male or a female. Prides or lone walking Lions can also move into areas where hunting is not allowed.

Option 2.
Lions that are roaming in fenced areas of 2,000 20,000 ha are hunted on foot.
There is always a member from Nature Conservation in attendance to ensure that these Lions are not drugged, and that the hunt is completely ethical, fair and legal.
This way we can assure you of a good quality animal in advance, on a 7 x day safari.
Lion - Fernando Soler
LION - Panthera Leo

Of all Africa's animals none are better known than the mighty "King of the Beasts" immortalised in many Hollywood movies and adventure hunting novels. The lion exudes majesty and power, always a breathtaking sight to any hunter and rightly so.
No hunter can ever forget the gaze of intent yellow eyes calculating from within dense thorn scrub, the earth shattering roar or the crunching of bones in the darkness. Try hunting a hungry lion that has no fear of man, on foot, in dense vegetation...you'll come away with a new perspective on life...

CITES
All lion are listed under Appendix II which requires export permits from the country of origin.
SCI minimum score 23" No entries are accepted from South Africa or Namibia due to the "canned lion saga"

Habits
Lion are widespread throughout Africa occurring where water and food is adequate. They are the only social cats and live and hunt in prides sometimes reaching up to 30. Resting in the daytime, they hunt from dusk, stalking prey downwind before the final rush. Common prey are herding animals such as zebra, wildebeest and buffalo, where confusion and panic can be caused. A 200lb Lioness will think nothing of tackling a 2000lb buffalo bull. Lion tend to follow big herds and it is not uncommon to find Lion spoor when on the track of a herd of buffalo. Although not always successful, Lion are extremely efficient hunters and opportunists, often robbing prey and young from cheetah and leopard.

Hunting tips - the hunt
In most countries Lion are hunted with baiting, with the hunter lying in ambush from a constructed blind about 30-50 yards off. The procedure is to first hunt bait, usually buffalo, hippo, zebra or any other large trophy taken, and to then hang or fasten the carcass to a tree in a likely area where Lion would occur. The bait is then checked every day until there has been a hit or strike. A large spoor or long hairs with black tips on the bait signal the building of a blind, on the ground or in a tree nearby where the hunter and PH will lie in wait usually from mid-afternoon or early mornings. The time spent in the blind waiting for the Lion is one of the most interesting and exciting of the chase. Here you have to remain absolutely still and silent, with other game and often the Lion passing so close to you you can hear them breathe.
The best shot to take is on the shoulder blades at the vital organs. Due to the mane, head and neck shots are not recommended. Sometimes the "Texas heart shot" is very effective as lion are not heavy bodied.
It is illegal to hunt with the aid of a light in most countries. In Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia special permits can be obtained.
In the early 1940s livestock farmers in Zambia suffered severe losses to their cattle from the high incidence of lion attacks. In those days, the city of Lusaka was, literally, a one street town and lion parading down the main street were not uncommon.
To this day, some of the old timers still talk about a man who helped them get rid of the lions on their farms. His name was Blik Oosthuizen and it is said that he had shot well over 300 lion in his hunting life with his 8x57 mm mauser.
What made him so well known was his manner of hunting the lion once they had killed a cow - he would lie down next to the carcass and wait for the lion to return and would then either shoot the cat from a lying position or stand up and shoot if there were more than one....

Hunting tips - the calibre
Lion are soft-skinned animals not requiring large bore calibres and solids. Anything from a .300 Magnum upwards with a heavy grain soft-nosed bullet is more than enough and shots are never at a great distance.

Hunting tips - the trophy
To the hunter, the ultimate quarry is a large maned lion even though the SCI Measurement is based upon the size of the skull. Mane does vary according to habitat with lion in open savannah or desert-like regions growing larger manes than those found in thicker bush. Often large-bodied Lion do not sport a mane of significance and hunters often mistakenly keep trying until they eventually get "The King".

Hunting tips - where
Recently the proliferation in safari hunting has resulted in many younger lion being taken. As a rule the number of large maned lion hunted each year is decreasing with hunters having to accept lower trophy standards. However prime concessions still yield large bodied, black maned lion for the hunter who has patience and determination. Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia produce some excellent maned males each year, but this is dependant upon the concession and the PH.

The "canned lion" story surfaced in the British press in the "Cook Report" in 1998 when a journalist accompanied a South African PH on a lion hunt. The video footage was indeed one-sided and propagated, but did show a lioness being shot from a vehicle inside a very small enclosure (which was true). A few clips of meowing cubs were added for emotional effect. The furore led to the suspension of all SCI Record Book entries for lions taken from South Africa and Namibia and rightly so. This year, the South African government is looking at legislation around predator breeding and possible restrictions and regulations. As of February 2005, the debate rages on with emotions running high on all sides. Email us if you want an update of what is happening in South Africa this year.
the bottom line

Realistically, one only has to look at the game ranching and hunting set-up in South Africa and Namibia, to realise that it is very unlikely that free roaming Lion would still exist on a huntable scale.
Therefore, it would appear that most lion offered for hunting are, or have at some stage been captive, and have been released onto an adequately enclosed area to be hunted. The value of ordinary game makes it unlikely that any economically minded game rancher will allow Lion to roam freely on his ranch while waiting for a foreign hunter to come on safari!
We believe that the lion population within South Africa and Namibia is far healthier than that in other countries (due mainly to Lion breeding programmes) and should be utilised ethically as a sustainable resource. In addition, the trophy quality of Lion in these countries often surpasses that of the rest of Southern Africa in both size and mane. In many cases, the hunting of these Lion can be more challenging than from the safety of a blind 50 yards away using bait and spotlights.
In fact, we are of the opinion that lions hunted in South Africa and Namibia should be ambassadors of wild lion throughout Africa. If lion hunting in these countries is banned, then wild lion populations will take a hit as governments look to cash in on the demand by raising lion quota and pressurising hunting concession owners.
It is ultimately the ethics of you, the hunter, that should be strong enough to realise and dictate the situation of hunting Lion in South Africa and Namibia.