A Beginners Guide To Hunting in Africa E-Book

Dr. Hans Röhlink

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 260

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Legal and sustainable hunting makes a significant contribution to species conservation worldwide. Especially hunting in Africa is the dream of every hunter. However, organizing an African safari is not easy for beginners. What awaits me in the hunting country? What huntable game is there and how is it hunted? How do I choose my guide and hunting area? What rifle and equipment do I need? How do I get my rifle to Africa and my trophy home? What are the costs? These are just a few of many questions that are answered in this book. All about - the organization of a hunting trip to Africa, - the most important hunting countries, - country-specific laws and regulations, - huntable game, its biology and behaviour, - hunting strategies, - common calibres, - safari rifles, - rifle handling, - export and import of firearms, and - health risks.

Leseprobe

For Rod. After him Africa is different.

I thank Horsti and Corris for accepting me as their disciple.

Foreword

When I was a child, my father would take out his stained, blue atlas of the world on long winter evenings, open pages of African maps, and tell us about countries he only knew from books. After that, he said, "When you grow up, we shall fly to Africa." My father died young. Africa he never saw.

I owed it to him. With my first own money I travelled to this continent, which has never released me from its spell and which I have now been able to visit more than thirty times. Its wildlife is one of the greatest wonders of our earth. I wanted to help preserve it. To learn as much as possible about nature as quickly as possible, I took the shortest route and started hunting, filling my numerous gaps in the fields of wildlife biology, botany, nature conservation, agriculture and forestry. Two passions, for Africa and for hunting, came together.

Soon I learned that hunting in Europe serves to protect nature, but also to reduce game that harms people's interests. Foresters see their trees, farmers their crops and conservationists the biodiversity of their environment endangered. The game here must give way to humans.

The same Europeans who have converted almost all their area into productive land expect Africans to transform entire parts of their countries into national parks – not least in order to preserve our world cultural heritage – which they are supposed to sustain themselves with their meagre resources. The same European conservationists who want to cram red deer into small territories as far as possible for the sake of biodiversity and preferably eradicate more common browsers altogether, want to commit Africans to unreservedly protect overpopulations of elephants, as if they did no harm to nature.

We shall not be able to preserve the game in Africa with unworldly and egocentric recipes, but only if local people protect it in their own interest.

In contrast to Europe, hunting in Africa serves to improve economic conditions by the use of game and thus to unite humans and animals in a symbiosis that benefits both.

Unfortunately, European and US eco-populists have rediscovered colonialism in search for more sources of income. Ill-conceived slogans, such as the demand for a ban on the import of trophies, make it sound, as in the old days, that we know everything better than "those down there". Simplifications of the facts and even untruths give the impression that wildlife protection is only possible through the intervention of nature conservation organizations, that there is just a lack of money and pressure on the states concerned. (Of course, it does not occur to anyone to give Africans an equal say in the conservation of our game.) Now all we need is an enemy image, the trophy hunter, to make donations flow to nature conservation associations, without any significant amounts ever finding their way to Africa.

If you want to know the truth, you can find out more about the outstanding work done on the continent by local experts and the actual contribution of trophy hunting to species conservation from the International Union for Nature (IUCN) or the World Wild Fund For Nature (WWF).

Many hunters in Europe dream my dream of hunting in Africa, but never make it come true. Financial reasons are not always decisive. Some hunters pay more for a deer hunt or the annual hunting ground lease than a hunt in Africa would make. You often hear: "I would like to hunt in Africa, but I do not know how."

The organization of an African hunting safari is really not always easy, even for experienced foreign hunters. What huntable game species are there and how are they hunted? What awaits me in the hunting country? How do I choose my hunting guide and hunting ground? What rifle and equipment do I need? How do I get my rifle to Africa and my trophy home? What are the costs? These are just a few of the many questions that the interested hunter asks, but hardly anyone has answered comprehensively so far.

This book is intended to provide all the essential knowledge needed to plan a hunting safari. It cannot answer all questions, cannot cover all eventualities, and it should not, because hunting in Africa should remain an adventure.

Those who have passed it will probably say afterwards: "It was the greatest adventure of my life!"

Table of Contents

1 Why hunt in Africa?

2 Hunting countries

2.1 Namibia

2.2 Zimbabwe

2.3 South Africa

2.4 Tanzania

3 Huntable game

3.1 Dangerous game

3.1.1 Elephant

3.1.2 Cape buffalo

3.1.3 Lion

3.1.4 Leopard

3.1.5 Rhinoceros

3.1.6 Hippopotamus

3.2 Large game

3.3 Medium and small game

3.4 Predators

4 Preparation

4.1 Read, read, read…

4.2 The choice of the hunting area and outfitter

4.3 Costs

5 Calibres and bullets

5.1 Large calibres

5.2 Large medium calibres

5.3 Medium calibres

5.4 Small calibres

5.5 The effectiveness of calibres in comparison

6 The safari rifle

6.1 New or used?

6.2 Repeating or double rifle?

6.3 Manual cocking or conventional system?

6.4 The bolt-action rifle

6.4.1 Safety

6.4.2 Trigger

6.4.3 Barrel

6.4.4 Sights

6.4.5 Magazine

6.4.6 Rifle stock and recoil pad

6.4.7 Rifle models

6.5 The double rifle

6.6 Scope and mount

6.6.1 The hunt for elephant, buffalo and hippo

6.6.2 Leopard hunt

6.6.3 Lion hunt

6.6.4 Plains game hunt

6.7 The path to a dangerous game rifle

6.8 Handling the rifle

6.9 Travelling with the weapon

7 The equipment

8 The hunting guide and I

9 And what else is dangerous in Africa?

10 Bibliography

1 Why hunt in Africa?

Is there a good reason to fly halfway around the world to an African country with unbearable temperatures, dangerous animals and outhouses to kill an animal and take a picture of it? There are actually a number of good reasons. One of them is that hunting helps to preserve Africa's wildlife. That may sound counterintuitive; however, it is only at first glance.

The main sources of income for people in sub-Saharan Africa are livestock farming and agriculture. Wild animals not only appear to be worthless, but they are also seen as competitors by the rural population: cheetahs, leopards and lions eat their cattle, antelopes eat the grass of their cattle, elephants and buffaloes destroy their fields. As a result, wild animals are poached on a large scale, shot, caught in snares, or even poisoned. In addition, meat is an important and indispensable part of the daily diet of Africans. Poaching by locals poses the greatest threat to Africa's wildlife. Laws, however, are of little help, because the country is wide, and the authorities are far away.

Some Europeans or Americans tend to turn the whole of Africa into a large national park, in which regiments of gamekeepers take care of the welfare of the game, so that we can occasionally take beautiful photos there or at least watch exciting documentaries on TV. There is just one aspect we do not consider: the wellbeing of the local people. If a European nation were the only country in the world with globally respected and protected wild boar populations, would we accept that an entire state or province is declared a national park for wild boars, from which all inhabitants are expelled, in which agriculture, livestock farming and forestry rest, no industry is allowed to settle, the wild boars are protected by gamekeepers at the expense of the taxpayers, only for the reason that well-heeled foreigners can travel through there without creating any significant jobs or even coming close to covering the costs with their entrance fees?

Zimbabwe, about the size of Germany, is home to almost 100,000 elephants, with thousands more every year. If only 100 elephants roamed freely here, which needed tens of tons of green food a day, destroyed a field every day, blocked roads and highways unpredictably every day, our patience would soon come to an end. There are 1000 times as many elephants in Zimbabwe! It may be argued that there is more free space in Zimbabwe. Then we must ask ourselves why we destroyed our nature, but now expect the people of Zimbabwe to preserve the elephants' habitats from their modest means, without benefiting from them, while we make demands from afar.

National parks in large, contiguous areas of Africa with significant game populations and good infrastructure are valuable and indispensable for the conservation of biodiversity and stocks. But they are always a subsidy business, financed with taxpayers' money that is already scarce in Africa, and the revenues rarely benefit the local population. Only the vague risk of being caught by a gamekeeper helps to curb poaching slightly. In the long term, stocks will inevitably decrease.

In addition, ecotourism is only such in its word. Visitors to the national parks demand good access roads or runways, as well as spacious, luxurious accommodation with running water, electricity and a swimming pool. In truth, the ecotourist leaves an indelible ecological footprint.

There is no doubt that national parks are an important factor for the conservation of wildlife populations. Hunting can be another, especially in less developed regions. In trophy hunting, only old, male animals are hunted, which no longer participate in the reproduction and rearing of young animals. Hunting, if it is carried out sustainably, does not reduce populations. Ideally, lease and trophy fees flow directly to the municipality on whose grounds the hunting area is located. In addition, the venison is delivered to the municipality free of charge, without the need to break any laws. (In large parts of Africa, the meat of elephants, buffaloes, hippos, zebras, all antelopes and warthogs belongs to staple foods, as factory farming is unusual or even prohibited.) This represents a paradigm shift for the locals. The previously worthless game suddenly gains value. Should I really poach an elephant that a hunter pays a lot of money to shoot, money that I can use to finance a school and a hospital, an elephant whose meat is distributed free of charge in the village? In hunting areas, unlike in national parks, poaching is not only an offence against nature, but against the community of all inhabitants and thus against everyone, so it is penalized in its own structures.

And finally, hunters are usually content with modest accommodation, mostly tents that are dismantled at the end of the season, with a little electricity from solar panels and dirty water from the nearby river. The hunter spends many times more on his stay than an ecotourist is willing to pay but leaves only a tiny ecological footprint.

In our highly developed countries, there are not few adherents to the thesis that man is spreading everywhere without justification into areas that once "belonged" to animals: ruthless man displaces (in the opinion of some even ethically superior) animals in need of protection. This is not correct, on the contrary. Every animal species spreads as long and as far as its resources allow, while man, at least occasionally and partially, limits his areas of dispersal – otherwise there would be no national parks or nature reserves. I have yet to meet a European animal lover who voluntarily lives on a few square meters of living space and (barely) survives on a few hundred square meters of agricultural land in his immediate vicinity just to make room for animals. We expect it from Africans. No one has yet acknowledged that he exists only because his own ancestors once spread "unjustifiably" into the territories of animals. Some complain about the growing population worldwide, but overpopulation is always just the others. We should give Africans the same opportunities for development and prosperity that we ourselves have taken advantage of.

Hunting is one of several ways to preserve Africa's game populations, provided it is sustainable, legal and benefits the locals. In Namibia, for example, game populations have increased considerably after the country became attractive for hunting. On the other hand, in Kenya, where hunting was banned in 1977, stocks have fallen dramatically since then.

Unfortunately, “canned hunting”, especially in South Africa, the illegal hunting of rare species and some improper behaviour have caused considerable damage to the image of foreign hunters. It is the obligation and responsibility of every foreign hunter not only to keep an eye on his personal hunting success and prestige, but also to promote biodiversity and game populations in the hunting country. He can only fulfil this task if he first carefully informs himself about the conditions in the intended hunting area.

But of course, we do not just travel to Africa for species conservation. Staying and hunting in this comparatively untouched landscape, where we can meet a lion or buffalo behind every tree, is one of the last true adventures away from civilization and today's mass tourism. We can take ourselves back to a world far before our time, to the same nature where humans had to stand their ground against wild animals thousands of years ago.

The hunt in Africa is very different from that in Europe. There you do not wait for your prey on high seats but track it down. First, a spoor is sought, which is followed against the wind until there is an opportunity to shoot. This requires special skills from the hunter: powers of observation, hearing, sense of smell, often physical fitness and, finally, above-average shooting skills. The anatomy of dangerous game must be retrievable from memory even in stressful situations. Success can only be achieved as a team: the hunting guide and trackers evaluate the spoor together with the hunter, which the trackers then follow until the hunting guide can assess the game and releases the shot in accordance with legal regulations. It remains the demanding task of the hunter to shoot from an often difficult position.

Anyone who has ever experienced such a hunt finds the European hide rather monotonous; those who succeed in Africa need not be afraid on any continent. A hunt in Africa is the highlight of every hunter's life.

2 Hunting countries

Hunting is possible in almost all African countries. However, the classic African hunt takes place in the countries south of the Sahara. I should like to confine myself to these.

Unlike in Europe, hunting laws and conditions are frequently and often abruptly revised in many African countries. It may happen that a country is completely closed to hunting without warning. A game species that can still be hunted this year may be spared all year-round next year. Even local professional hunters are often informed only a few months in advance. This has advantages, as it is possible to react quickly to changes in stocks without having to go through a lengthy legislative process, as is the case in Europe. However, it makes planning a hunting trip quite difficult.

For each animal to be hunted, a hunting license is required. Even if rough conditions change little, the number of available hunting licenses can increase or decrease substantially from year to year. An outfitter often only knows at the beginning of the year which game species he can offer and under what conditions.

Popular hunting countries south of the Sahara include Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Tanzania.

In Botswana, hunting was closed in 2014 and reopened in 2019, partly due to a dramatic overpopulation of elephants. However, the conditions are still unclear.

In Zambia, too, around the same time, in 2014, hunting opportunities were severely restricted, so that it is now only recommended for advanced foreign hunters with special interests.

Mozambique has reopened as a hunting ground after decades of political turmoil. However, the state is still politically unstable with an infrastructure that is under construction. Long-term planning is hardly possible.

Cameroon and Burkina Faso are hunting countries for experienced specialists who are looking for rare game species and know how to deal with both extreme climatic conditions and rudimentary hunting infrastructure.

Available for the less experienced hunter (for whom this book is written!) are Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania.

2.1 Namibia

Namibia in southwestern Africa between Angola in the north, Botswana in the east and South Africa in the south is more than twice the size of Germany but has hardly more inhabitants than Hamburg. After Mongolia, Namibia has the lowest population density of any country in the world. The country is dominated by two deserts, the Namib in the west and the Kalahari in the east. In between lie the partly quite fertile inland highlands. In the northeast, the 450 km long and 50 km wide Caprivi Strip stretches between the states of Angola and Zambia in the north, Zimbabwe in the east and Botswana in the south. The climate in Namibia is hot and dry, in the Caprivi Strip hot and subtropical humid due to the large rivers Okavango, Cuando and Zambezi.

The legal hunting season in Namibia is from February to November. The best hunting season is the African winter between May and September. At this time of year, it is dry, and temperatures are pleasant by European standards between about 5 °C and 25 °C, in June and July in the early morning hours often below freezing. Due to these moderate temperatures, the traveller is hardly bothered by insects. Snakes and scorpions, although present, are sluggish and very rarely visible in such climatic conditions. At the beginning of the dry period, when waterholes are still filled and the vegetation is green, game moves briskly, only to become more and more lethargic as the drought increases. Late in winter, it is reluctant to move so as not to waste energy and water reserves. Then you see numerous skinny and weak animals. In search of a bait for leopards, I once shot a two-year-old warthog in the advanced dry season, which weighed less than five kilograms – no exception.

From 1884 until the First World War, in 1915, Namibia was the colony German Southwest Africa. Today, about 30,000 people of German origin, mainly farmers, still live in the country. This influence can be seen in the cityscape of larger towns. Many shops are still run under German names. German is an important lingua franca alongside Afrikaans but is increasingly being replaced by the official language English, which was brought into the country by the South Africans, under whose mandate Namibia stood until independence in 1990. German-speaking tourists have no trouble finding their way around the country, although some knowledge of English is an advantage.

Although the Germans committed many atrocities during the colonial period, as a tourist you will be received very friendly. If the unsuspecting traveller suddenly gets caught up in a demonstration of Herero or Nama, in which compensation is demanded from the German government, he should join them and have a chat with Andreas, Johannes or Maria, very popular names among the locals. There will be no hostility, but a great deal of interest in the conditions in Germany today.

Much of the agricultural land is owned by white farmers, while many locals, who were allowed to attend school only for a few years under South African apartheid, must earn their living as day laborers. The Namibian government is faced with the difficult and lengthy task of encouraging its own people for better times without expropriating farms, which, as in neighbouring Zimbabwe, would lead to the collapse of the economy. (A few farms were expropriated under special circumstances, but courts awarded fair compensation.) The government is mastering this balancing act excellently. Schools and universities have been set up in which young people learn to gradually manage the economy, especially agriculture, of their own country, no doubt a process of decades. In order not to be seen as idle in the eyes of its voters today, but at the same time not to drive qualified and experienced white farmers out of the country, the government limits itself to small pinpricks, such as renaming "Kaiser Wilhelm Straße" to "Sam Nujoma Avenue." Against this background, one should also see street names such as "Fidel Castro Street" and "Robert Mugabe Avenue", or the removal of one or the other German monument from the cityscape.

Namibia is a wonderful travel destination for the whole family. Roads are well developed, but some of them consist only of gravel, which at high speed give the feeling that you are driving on soft soap. Once you get used to driving on the left, crossing the country by rental car is a pleasure. The traffic in Windhoek is small-town by any standards, but thin outside. A four-wheel drive is needed only in few areas. Although the roadsides are carefully mowed, wild animals can unexpectedly cross the roadway, sometimes with disastrous outcomes. Towards the end of the dry season, countless warthogs line the road to find a little nutritious grass. Pay attention to SUVs with blue lights at breakneck speed in front of or behind you! Then it is advisable to stop immediately at the roadside, otherwise you will be run over by the motorcade of the president, whose driver is obviously always in a great hurry and apparently does not have the word "speed limit" in his vocabulary.

There are many places of interest. The nature-loving hunter should not leave the country without visiting the world-famous Etosha National Park. The park, larger than half the size of Switzerland, is home to the big four: elephants, lions, leopards and, more recently, rhinos in larger numbers. (Buffaloes were banned from the park for fear of foot-and-mouth disease.) In addition, there is a variety of predators, antelopes and, not to forget, rare and interesting bird species. Three days in Etosha is a minimum, but even after a week you will not be bored, provided you have an interest in African fauna and flora.

The idyllic town of Swakopmund is definitely worth a visit. The image of this small town, located in the Namib Desert on the Atlantic Ocean, is characterized by numerous buildings from the Wilhelminian period. The climate is moderately warm, but in the African winter occasionally cold and foggy. On short excursions you can marvel at imposing sand dunes or thousands of seals at Cape Cross.

The currency is the Namibian dollar (N$), which is linked to the South African rand, which is also accepted everywhere. Currently, one N$ is equivalent to about 0.05 €/US-$. Cash can be obtained with a European bank card at an ATM after struggling through a menu in incomprehensible financial English and finding a randomly working key combination at the end. Banks also exchange foreign currency, but you should bring a lot of time and a passport. It is advisable to exchange cash in sufficient quantities at the airport.

Swakopmund – a gem between desert and sea

I have never experienced crime in Namibia – during almost twenty trips there. Many houses are surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, but I do not know if they were built because of the high crime rate, or if because of these walls everyone believes in high crime. At night, however, I refrain from long walks and let a taxi take me from one place to another for comparatively little money. In all major parking lots there are young men, recently mostly in high-visibility vests, who politely introduce themselves and inform you that they are paying attention to the car during the driver's absence. They expect a reward of a few Namibian dollars. I have always been able to rely on these guards and was never worried even when I left my rifle in the car.

From time to time there is minor harassment, no more or less than in Europe, too.

* * *

We drove into Otavi, a tiny town that has four-lane roads but no significant traffic. For lack of a clue, I parked somewhere at the roadside while my wife exchanged money in the bank in a lengthy process. (There was no ATM there.) My displeasure about the waiting time increased, as we still had a long drive ahead of us. From a few hundred meters, I saw a young local running purposefully towards my car. My anger increased. I did not want an annoying sales talk. The man stopped in front of the car door. I reluctantly opened the window. "You're standing on the wrong side of the road," he said laconically and went his way. I sat in the car with a red face, and I was angry with myself and my unfounded suspicions.

* * *

Entry into Namibia usually takes place via Windhoek International Airport, a euphemistic term for a runway with a small terminal building within walking distance of the plane. There are several direct flights from Frankfurt to Windhoek. A visa is not required for EU citizens. Firearms must be registered with the airline in good time before travel.

Importing rifles is very simple. Rifle(s) are brought from the plane directly to a small room in the check-in hall. You complete a form for the import of rifles and, after comparing the number of each rifle with that in the form, you obtain a stamp. The form must be carried with you until departure. To save time, you can download the form on your computer (e.g. under www.namibweb.com/arms-permit-namibia.pdf) and fill it out at home. The import of firearms is free of charge.

An unlimited number of rifles and up to 100 rounds of ammunition may be imported.

The minimum calibre is 7 mm. In addition, there is a lower limit for bullet energy values that a cartridge must meet:

5400 J for big game/dangerous game,

2700 J for large antelopes and

1350 J for small antelopes.

However, these stipulations are almost never checked. In the end, the hunting guide decides which calibres and cartridges are acceptable.

Fully automatic firearms and small arms are prohibited. Semi-automatic rifles are allowed for hunting, but you should leave them at home, if you want to avoid lengthy discussions at the airport.

Some hunters enter via South Africa. You should allow at least five hours for the import and export of firearms at Johannesburg airport.

Unlike in many African countries, the foreign hunter in Namibia is not necessarily asked to lock his rifle in a safe during his stay. Many hotels offer this service, but you often get astonished looks and sometimes incomprehension.

* * *

We met several obviously high-ranking personalities who were photographed by journalists in front of our hotel in Windhoek. At the reception, I learned that they were three heads of state. Meanwhile, my rifle and ammunition were one floor up in my room. I wish our government had as much confidence in its subjects.

* * *

If you are flexible in your choice of rifle, you can usually rent a rifle, e.g. on a hunting farm, for a small fee of usually 20 €/US-$ per hunting day. This is a good alternative if you only go hunting for a few days and also want to travel the country. When visiting all national parks, firearms must be declared and sealed in a time-consuming process. On a journey through the country, there is always the risk that the rifle will go astray, which can cost the returnee his firearms permit at home.

Namibia is the classic country for plains game hunting. Plains game refers to all game, including leopards and cheetahs, which is at home in the open savannah, except dangerous game. Outstanding trophy bearers include eland, kudu, oryx and warthog, but good trophies can also be found among hartebeests, ostriches, giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests and various small antelopes. In addition, leopard, cheetah, serval, caracal and baboon can be hunted.

Namibia's leopards, as a professional hunter friend once put it, have all "attended university". Due to the relentless hunting on the part of farmers in the past, the leopards in Namibia are exceptionally shy and clever. A few years ago, after many illegal activities, the government imposed very strict conditions on leopard hunting: only a few licenses are issued, these are tied to previously registered hunters and must be paid before the hunt begins, regardless of whether the hunt is successful or not.

There are similar provisions for cheetahs. They are particularly unpopular with farmers, as they cause considerable damage to their livestock. Namibia has a large number of cheetahs compared to other countries – about half of all southern African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) live in Namibia – but they are in retreat throughout Africa because of their rather defensive nature when competing with other predators and are threatened in many regions.

For all other plains game, a license must be issued before hunting for each animal to be shot, and a maximum of two animals of each species may be shot by a hunter. Since, except for big cats, licenses are issued by the authorities with little restriction, it is usually still possible to obtain a permit for a certain game species on site and to organize one's hunt flexibly.

The plains game hunt takes place predominantly on private farmland. Many former cattle ranches have been repurposed as hunting farms or mixed hunting/cattle farms, some with reintroduced game, which benefits game populations throughout the country. All farms in Namibia are fenced as required by law to prevent neighbourhood disputes. Most fences are mere cattle fences about one meter high, which are no obstacle for passing game. However, many farmers have erected higher game fences. I sometimes have sympathy for these farmers, who on the one hand want to curb poaching, on the other hand want to prevent their game, which is often acquired for much money, from migrating to other farms. Purists, such as the well-known professional hunter Kai-Uwe Denker, reject such game fences. I have no problems with them, as long as the farms are of sufficient size. Each hunter must make this decision for himself. It is advisable to seek detailed information on the farm where you want to hunt before travelling.

When choosing a hunting farm in Namibia, you cannot go wrong, provided you are careful. Unlike in some other countries, I have never heard of a foreign hunter falling victim to a significant scam. Since most farmers are English- and German-speaking, communication is easy and sufficient inquiries can be made before hunting. If possible, you should follow recommendations of hunter friends. Note, however, that the farmer finds his income primarily in the trophy fee he charges for each animal. Sometimes a hunting guide on a farm releases inferior trophy bearers, e.g. too young animals, for shooting in order to increase sales. The only way to prevent this is to learn as much as possible from books about how to assess the age and trophy of the game to be hunted before travelling.

It is not uncommon for hunting guides to exert pressure on the hunter to kill as many animals as possible. You should decide before the trip which and how many animals you want to hunt and tell the hunting guide right at the beginning. This is advisable anyway, provided you do not confuse "hunting" with "shooting". Personally, I do not shoot every animal just because it happens to be in front of me.