Greetings from the Chacma family

Winter is on our doorstep. We had wonderful rainfall the last month and a half here in the Limpopo Province. The rest of South Africa is very dry, but here we are beginning to wish for some sunshine. While most of us are very happy that it rained so late in the year, some of the agricultural farmers are not too happy with lots of rain, and another negative side to so much rain is a cold winter, and the experts say its going to be a very cold one this year. We here in South Africa are not used to cold winters, so hopefully we won’t freeze. A lot has been happening here at Chacma Safaris, and we have been busy with the hunts these last few weeks.

Fred and Winnie from Belgium also got stuck in South Africa because of the ash cloud. However they made the most of it. Fred shot some good trophies and really enjoyed a good walk and stalk. Winnie on the other hand finished her first book.

Visit our gallery on our website for more photos

Here's some International and local South African hunters

His first kudu. He also shot a very good impala.

Nebojsa Savic from Canada. He had a very exciting lion hunt and he shot a few other species.

HUNTING THE BUSHPIG:

Bushpig is one of the few species in Africa of which the current natural distribution is almost the same as, or even wider than, its historical distribution. Their preferred habitat, which includes forests, thickets, reed beds or heavy cover of tall grass (with an availability of water), combined with their nocturnal and secretive habits, have made this species resilient to heavy hunting pressure, persisting in the face of urban expansion and thriving because of intense agricultural development.

Omnivorous in the true sense of the word, they have an immensely varied diet. They root end browse, eating rhizomes of various grass types, bulbs, wild fruits (they often follow vervet monkeys and baboons that dislodge fruit from trees) and prickly pears, but are also fond of various insects, birds’ eggs, baby birds, lizards, snakes, carrion, etc. However, when it comes to agricultural crops, such as mealies, sugar cane, fruit, pineapples and any other vegetable crops, they make real gluttons of themselves, in the process destroying and wasting more than they can eat.

As agricultural pests the damage does not stop at vegetation either. They are known to kill and eat chickens on poultry farms, sheep and goat lambs, domestic piglets. It is thus no surprise that they are declared problem animals in most provinces where they occur. Bushpig are gregarious, and sounders of up to 15 pigs are not uncommon, although the average group size is about 6-8 animals.

Each sounder has a dominant boar and sow, other sows, juveniles and piglets. The dominant boar takes care of and teaches the young, leading them to and from feeding areas whilst guarding them. The boar has a close association with the piglets to an age of about 5-6 months, after which especially the male youngsters are driven out to form temporary bachelor groups.

Before giving birth to three to four piglets the sow plucks branches pf tall grass, leaves or small branches and carries these to a hidden, chosen site where it is piled up until it looks like a small hay stack, in which she bores down to litter, thus insulating the young from the ground and the weather. Leaves and branches are often chewed for lining the nest. In forests, hollow tree stumps are also used as nests.

When moving to feeding areas at night, which can be up to four kilometers from their day lairs, they make use of the same clearly demarcated routes. Boars do tree marking by rubbing secretion from their facial glands, and tusking. The trees selected for this are all of above-average girth for the area. Hunters should keep this in mind , since an early morning ambush can often be successfully set up along one of these paths.

Bushpigs are also partial to taking mud baths as a temperature regulator and protection from insect bites, and finding a regularly used mud wallow may also give one the edge on them.

Hunting bushpig over bait at night has its own thrills – especially when you are also on ground level, with pigs within spitting distance.

One can construct permanent pig blinds/restaurants, which can be baited with vegetable matter, such as rotting fruit, pine-apples, sorghum, fermenting mealies, etc. The best, however, are carcasses of animals that have died of natural causes, which can be pulled to/dumped at the feeding lot. There is normally no need to build a blind, but it may be necessary to drag the carcass into a clearing within short distance (10 to 5m) from your hiding place. As long as you sit in deep shadow on the edge of the bush, and you have cleared a sort of shooting tunnel to the bait, which should be completely open, outside the bush, there’s no need to construct a blind.

Since you will have to sit very still for a long period of time, you could take with you a cushion to sit on, or remove some pebbles/stones/thorns from underneath your backside. Determine the direction of the prevailing night breeze efore you select your hiding place, or prepare another one in case, since it is absolutely essential that you sit downwind of the bait.

The bigger the bait, the better, since it will last longer, thus providing you with more opportunities at a pig. They will start visiting a carcass only after a few days, when it has become maggot ridden, since the latter is considered as the spice to the meat! During the first visit they will open the softer belly first, and devour the stomach content. The carcass may also be moved, since fly larvae, which drop from the carcass, bury themselves in the ground beneath it, and pigs nose these out to eat. They will visit the carcass until it’s completely finished.

Make sure you are in the blind by sunset as they often arrive before it’s properly dark. Pigs immediately scatter when a light is suddenly switched on, especially if the light hits them from the side. If you have a choice, rather rely on the moonlight for pig-hunting.

The clearer the sky and fuller the moon, the better.

You often hear them coming from far. If they haven’t been disturbed before they can really make a racket. Just before the noisy gang arrives at the bait, the noise will stop, and the boar will do some real deep, snorting sniffing, testing the air for danger. Don’t bat an eyelid. If, suspicious, one or more pigs will circle the bait, and this is a real test for one’s nerves. Hopefully none will go downwind and smell you.

When they start feeding they really dig in. When one pig gets separated from the bunch you can take your shot.

Occasionally they may feed during daytime, but then almost invariable during rainy or heavily overcast weather.

BURKEA AFRICANA:

Description:

A fairly common tree on deep sand, up to 12m tall. It is the last large tree to lose its leaves during the dry season. It flowers in October with unspectacular creamy-white to green spikes and can easily be identified by its dark-red velvety young shoot.

Use:

Sometimes B. africana is used for fuel wood, but it is not very popular and not thought to be very good. However the wood is important for making mortars.

The leaves are the only food resource of two kinds of edible caterpillars which are harvested in thousands during the rainy season, mainly January and February. To prepare them for cooking, the head of the living caterpillar is torn off and the whole inner, greenish digestion system is either pressed out or pulled out. The bodies are then washed and boiled.

The water must boil away 2-3 times, then oil is added for frying. They are then salted and ready to be served. People like them very much and they are regarded as a delicacy. The caterpillars can be dried in the sun after boiling and can then be stored for up to one year. After storage they will need to be boiled and then fried. Sometimes people also eat dried caterpillars without boiling them again, but this can easily cause inflammations in the mouth because of the hard and spiny "spikes" of the caterpillars.

The bark is used as dye for Combretum zeyheri roots which are woven into baskets (see under Combretum zeyheri).

Medical use:

The roots are used to treat stomach pain and tooth ache. For both treatments, the outer skin of the roots is scraped away, the roots are cut into pieces of about 5cm and are boiled for 5 to 10 min.

Used for stomach pain, the infusion has to be cooled down and 3 cups a day are taken. For tooth ache, the infusion has to be still warm. It is swilled in the mouth around the aching tooth for about 3 min. and then spat out.

This has to be repeated 3 times a day.

REMEMBER CHACMA SAFARIS WHEN YOU BOOK
YOUR NEXT HUNTING SAFARI IN AFRICA!!
OUR PRICES ARE GREAT!!
AND OUR SERVICE EVEN BETTER!!

For more information on our hunting packages and prices, please visit our website at www.chacmasafari.co.za or e-mail us at info@chacmasafari.co.za.

SEE YOU SOON!!