This year I undertook the quest of understanding the hunting industry more intimately by photographing two very different hunting reserves, Burchell’s game reserve “Frontier Safaris”, a wealthy and internationally renowned game farm, and Lanka Safaris, a small local game farm not far from Riebeeck East.

Where Frontier Safaris primarily caters for overseas tourists, Lanka Safaris targets the Spanish market and, because of the saturated hunting market, it also welcomes local hunters. Both are hunting reserves and conservation areas.It is however the stereotype of the hunting industry that I wish to address in this feature, explaining, understanding and correcting the misconstrued views that popular and certain activist media have propagated and compounded to bring the industry into disrepute. I’ll openly admit here, now that I am a nature lover and have myself frowned upon hunting, having screamed at hunters that were stalking through Forest to shoot rabbits in Germany when I was only a young child. I have a passion for animals, always have and always will, but for sake of an industry in disrepute one has to look at all the facts before laying down judgement.

 

My first encounter with the hunting industry was at the Frontier Safaris, found just off Alicedale and easily accessible from Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. The first time on a hunting reserve was combined with the another first of riding through a game park on a motorcycle – the biggest fear wasn’t the animals, but itchy trigger fingers not taking into account what’s behind the animal. My fears proved to be unfound and I arrived at lodge without a hitch. I was introduced to Leon and Delene Harrald, an elderly couple that manage and maintain the lodge. Leon has been a Professional Hunter (PH) most of his life and Delene has managed game reserves equally as long.A professional hunter does more than just hunt however; he acts as a guide, a tracker and overall fixer.

The first morning he was to take out Jose, a Spanish hunter that extensively travels the world to hunt anything that is not human. We took to the Toyota Landcruiser, which takes a rigorous beating through the bush, picked up our tracker and headed into the veld as the first rays of sun crept over the horizon. Driving in an open vehicle just as the sunstarts to rise is a freezing experience, something that Leon has apparently just become immune to.Driving into the bush we’re on the lookout for Burchell Zebra, one of the few species Jose does not have mounted on his wall. Jose is actually an agent working for Safari International, a hunting company that liaises, advises and plans hunts throughout the world. He hunts only for the trophy, to mount the head or the entire animal and to display it in his home.

This is a complete contrast to Leon’s style of hunting; sure, Leon does it for the pleasure, but he essentially only shoots buck to eat, not for the sake of killing. “The animal is just as beautiful from here as it is on the ground” he says while looking at a Kudu through his binoculars.Jose is a killer; it’s as plain as that, taking pot shots at anything that hasn’t quite moved out of the range of his rifle. Jose thinks of himself as big man, a helper to those that need to cull elephants, the big white man that came to Africa to rid it of its problems. Diagnosis amongst Professional Hunters: psychopath, killer, bad for the hunting industry. It is people like Jose that ruin the idea behind hunting, bringing the lifestyle into disrepute one senseless pot shot at a time.Leon however approaches things radically different. Being a professional hunter to him does not equate to killer or having a desire to take an animal’s life. It is a thrill to hunt. Wandering and stalking through the bush, spending time in the veld is the most pleasurable part of it; the kill is the reward after a long day. While the way Jose hunts completely juxtaposes Leon’s philosophy, he is obliged to please the client without any complaint.

 

Driving through the bush so that Jose has the animal straight in front of him does not define hunting - it defies the spirit of the hunt and disgraces professional hunting.Eventually a Zebra is shot and killed, and a practised routine kicks into action. The animal is prodded up, twisting and contorting its body for the trophy shot. Leon crouches on the ground to get the perfect shot, after which a tracker takes to the Zebra with a hunting knife. An incision is made along the stomach, pulling away the skin to get access to the stomach which is then cut open and bubbles out. The intestines are pulled out and left for the jackals.In essence most hunters are conservationists, nature lovers that have made a passion a lifestyle.

 

Hunting isn’t the cruel or inhumane activity popular media makes it out to be, in all honesty, and all facts considered, game farms that offer hunting are conservation areas. The animals live free, unrestricted in their natural habitat in which they thrive. The gene pool ishealthy, fresh, since old animals are shot out and new males are brought in frequently. Generally, unless the hunter is looking for something in particular, old animals are shot out the herd, the ones that have seen and eaten a lot of grass in their day.I sat down with Owen Poultney, who currently manages the Riebeeck East side of the Lanka Safaris. Game farms are struggling he tells me. There are too many, and as such Owen and his team decided to target the European market, in particular Spanish clientele. Owen even went through the rigorous process of teaching himself Spanish. Yet, with the current European economic crisis foreign hunters cannot afford to fly over to RSA.The game hunting business is as lucrative as it is competitive, and with the abundance of game farms in the Eastern Cape it is becoming ever more difficult to stay afloat.

 

Whatever the people may say, we need the game farms, and as I have discovered time and time again hunters are nature lovers and conservationist. The fact of the matter is that without the business of hunting the reserves simply would not exist and would be stamped out by agricultural farmers, furthermore diminishing the natural beauty and abundance of wildlife that we are so fortunate to have in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The people involved are many, and each everyone is passionate about their job.