Dangerous Game Hunting Safaris in Botswana

Hunting Dangerous Game In Botswana

Botswana is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Its landscape is defined by the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta, a lush animal habitat during seasonal floods. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve, with its river valleys and undulating grasslands, is home to many animals, including giraffes, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs.

Botswana was known as one of the top dangerous-game hunting countries in southern Africa for many years, with elephants, lions, and leopards, as well as a wide variety of plains game inhabiting the country from the Kalahari Desert to the Okavango Delta. In 2013, the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife, and Tourism issued a ban on hunting in all government and community lands, but fortunately, the ban was lifted. The plains-game hunting in this beautiful country is excellent, with zebra, bushbuck, eland, gemsbok, impala, kudu, red hartebeest, warthog, wildebeest, lechwe, sitatunga, and waterbuck among the most sought-after species. Hunting is conducted in a variety of ways: in a traditional safari vehicle, by poling in a mokoro, the traditional dugout canoe, or by walking ancient paths with native Bushmen. Any way you hunt in Botswana, it is a wildlife-rich country.

Describing Botswana’s wildlife involves big numbers and lofty superlatives. The country is home to some of the largest populations of lion, giraffe, hippo, wildebeest, and buffalo in Africa, plus 450 bird species. It has some of the world’s largest elephants in the world’s largest herds, with total numbers estimated at 130,000, more elephants than any other country in Africa. In addition, the Okavango Delta is home to some 200,000 mammals during the dry season, while the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is the second largest wildlife reserve in the world.

These impressive figures are partly born of Botswana’s size. It’s a vast country – almost twice that of the UK and Ireland combined.,. It has a huge mix of terrain, including marshes, rivers, salt pans, savannah, scrub, and the Okavango Delta. It means a large of wildlife can easily live there for most of the year. In addition to its private reserves and national parks, huge transfrontier parks exist that further support wildlife, such as the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park shared by Botswana and South Africa and designed to provide migration routes for wildebeest and springboks.

Botswana’s hunting season runs from the beginning of April to the end of September. You are not allowed to hunt female, young, and/or immature animals. Hunting from a vehicle is prohibited, but you are allowed to use the vehicle to reach the area from where the hunting will be done on foot. Botswana offers elephant trophy hunting, buffalo and leopard trophy hunting, as well as trophy hunting for multiple plains game species.

Elephant Hunting in Botswana

Botswana’s government says rural communities have earned more than $5 million (Top of Form

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65,048,750 Botswanan Pula) in 2022 from the proceeds of elephant hunting. Conservationists object to the practice, but local officials say the hunts are necessary to reduce human-wildlife conflict. The hunts attract hunters from all over the world who pay huge sums to shoot elephants.

Acting Minister of Environment and Tourism, Sethabelo Modukanele, said communities are benefiting following the lifting of a five-year hunting ban.

“Hunting was reinstated in 2019 following a five-year moratorium after extensive stakeholder consultation. This allowed communities to generate considerable revenues amounting to 50 million pula over two years [from 2021 to 2022] for their development projects,” said Modukanele.

Botswana’s growing elephant population, at more than 130,000, has created conflict with humans, as the animals often trample crops and injure or kill people. Lots of big elephants are to be found in Botswana. It is one of the few remaining counties where a big elephant is still a possibility.

Leopard Hunting in Botswana

Botswana has some of the best and most exciting leopard hunts in Africa. One of the most exciting methods used is chasing leopards by using Kalahari Bushmen and hounds. 

These hunts take place in the Kalahari Desert, where the brush is low and open, with the soft sand in the area making for easier tracking.

Once a big track is found, the Bushmen will start tracking the cat. 

Multiple bushmen are involved in tracking. But, to see them work the spoor of a huge cat, probably Africa’s most elusive animal: is something you will never forget.

Leopard males can travel great distances, and it is not uncommon to be on a specific track or hunt a specific male for days.

Once the trackers sense they are close to the cat or get a sighting, the dog handler releases the dogs. 

Once the dogs have the scent, getting up to them as quickly as possible as soon as they have bayed the leopard, is essential.

The professional hunter will get the client as close as possible to take the shot at the cat.

Leopard hunting with hounds has a very high rate of success. 

It is 100% legal to hunt leopards with hounds in Botswana. A Government Wildlife Officer is present with all hunts.

The best time to hunt leopards is at dawn or dusk in areas that do not permit night hunting. Being nocturnal, these animals are most active in the early morning and evening when they are likely to come to a bait, and you need to be ready and awake. If hunting at night over bait, it is debatable whether hunting during a full or new moon is best. The best time to hunt is the colder months when leopards seem to be more active, and your baits last longer, even though leopards will eat rotten meat. Avoid lambing season and drought times, as the opportunity is greater for a leopard to find a free meal and avoid your baits.

Cape Buffalo Hunting in Botswana

The well-known writer, Robert Ruark, was reported to have said about hunting Cape buffalo. “I lurched up and looked at Mbogo, and Mbogo looked at me. He was 50 to 60 yards off, his head low, his eyes staring right down my soul. He looked at me as if he hated my guts. He looked as if I had despoiled his fiancee, murdered his mother, and burned down his house. He looked at me as if I owed him money. I never saw such malevolence in the eyes of any animal or human being before or since. So, I shot him.”

In the Okavango Delta, as in the Kalahari Game Reserve, hunting areas are open territories, not fenced.

The habitat of the Okavango Delta is alternating wet and dry areas with seasonal variation: lagoons, islands, marshes, palms forest, and grassy plains. The habitat of the other hunting areas varies little from one region to another. It is primarily sandy terrain with acacia or mopane forests, thorn bush, and grassy plains.

Cape buffalo safaris in Botswana usually begin with a drive in a 4×4 from camp, then once in the bush, tracking on foot. The terrain is flat, and the hunting is not very physically demanding. While hunting in the Okavango Delta for Cape Buffalo, wooden dugout canoes (mokoro) may be used to get to areas inaccessible by other means, a truly memorable hunting experience.

The buffalo areas in Botswana are managed by outfitters and professional hunters who are most often locals or from either South Africa or Namibia. The hunting camps are generally large and comfortable tent camps with full amenities. In most cases, access to the hunting areas is by small plane from the capital of Botswana, Gaborone, or from Maun.

Plains Game Hunting in Botswana

Botswana is an extraordinary place to hunt plains game in Africa. Why? Because eland, kudu, and gemsbok grazing on ranches in the Kalahari went virtually untouched, while elephant, lion, and Cape buffalo were the country's most desirable game to hunt. Things changed in 2014 when the government moratorium on hunting was instituted. The one exception to the hunting ban was that plains game on some private lands remained open to hunting.

• Kudu – Kudu is a shy and secretive antelope that prefers broken landscapes, where its protective coloring allows it to disappear into the bush, earning it the nickname “Grey Ghost.” The best method for Kudu hunting is spot-and-stalk. However, the typical Kudu habitat, while well adapted for stalking, is not always suitable for the African way of spotting from vehicles, so you should be prepared to do a lot of walking. Hunting from a blind over a salt lick or a water hole is also possible. Many hunters, especially bowhunters, find the opportunity to watch the wildlife from a hide an exciting bonus to the hunt.
• Eland - Usually, it’s never an easy hunt and requires a certain level of fitness to track or reach these animals, especially when hunted in a free-range area or hilly terrain. This can be a challenging hunt as these animals can cover so much ground in such a short period of time. Hunting methods used to hunt Eland are spot-and-stalk or from a blind, at last light, over a water hole or a salt lick for bow hunters. However, these animals can be tracked and hunted like many of the larger free-range game on the large desert ranches of Namibia or the Kalahari in South Africa. Watching a master tracker at work is one of the most rewarding ways of hunting. Make sure your first shot counts, as these can be really hard animals to put down. Otherwise, you will be in for a long walk. Shot placement is everything.
• Sable - As with many African species, opportunities to hunt the sable antelope exist year-round. However, the summer (December - February) is too hot for hunting in many areas. Most PHs seem to think that the dry season, when the cover is sparser and the animals congregate around pans (water holes), is to be preferred. Sable hunts are usually carried out in the classic spot-and-stalk. Typically, the hunter and the PH drive the area in a vehicle, stopping to glass around the land. When the animals are located, the hunter stalks them on foot. Bowhunters may prefer waiting in blinds or tree stands positioned over salt licks or water holes. The hunter is free to choose whatever way works best for him or her.