Specialty Animal Hunts

Specialty Animal Hunts in Africa

Most first-time hunters to Africa do not start out taking specialty animal hunts.  Rather, they start their African hunting with a plains game safari or two.  Many hunters will move on to big game hunting, while others will start searching out the odds and ends that make up the specialty animal category.  Specialty animal hunts in Africa are a quest, but can become an obsession.  The taking of some of the rare and unusual species of Africa can be quite satisfying and in some cases, these trophies produced by  specialty animal hunts may become the stars of a hunter’s trophy room.

Specialty animals are any animals that don’t fit into the dangerous game or plains game classifications.  Specialty animals also include the small African cat species, but those will be included in a separate section of this website.  There are a lot of odds and ends animals in Africa, starting with the aardvark.  The aardvark is protected in many areas, but it is still possible to get a permit every now and then.

The striped, spotted and brown hyenas all fit in to the specialty animal category.   Many other nighttime animals are also considered specialty animal hunts.  The honey badger, aardwolf and black-backed jackal are specialty animals that are mostly hunted at night.  Bat-eared fox and Cape fox are also collectable species that may be taken on specialty animal huns in certain areas in Africa.  So is the bushpig.  Bushpigs are hunted with spotlights or over bait such as corn or rancid meat.  The bushpigs are not looking to eat the rancid meat but are mainly after the maggots that rotten meat piles produce.

Red river hogs and giant forest hogs are also the targets of specialty animal hunting safaris.  Then there are the primates such as vervet monkeys and baboons. The baboon is a hunter favorite and a male baboon with his teeth exposed makes for a fearsome looking trophy mount.  Specialty animal hunts may also include small mammals like the mongoose and the rock hyrax.  Some African countries allow the harvesting of rock pythons and other snakes.  Specialty animal hunts in Africa offer the hunter a challenging hunt for some of Africa’s most exotic animals.