The newest issue of "The Hunting Report" seemed favorable to Federico Gellini - Savannah Game Trackers of Tanzania. Anyone here have any skinny on them and the quality of their concessions. Looking for a "companion" hunt with lion and elephant being the focus. Three of their elephant concessions are:
1. KILWA S.M.
2. TUNDURU O.P.
3. LIPARAMBA G.R.

I found nothing using the AR search function.

The little I know is the following:
1- Federico Gellini has been operating in TZ for a long time. His previous company was called Masaailand Hunting company. One of his earlier clients was Gen. Schwarzkopf and he had his picture all over his literature.
2- He sold his company to a certain Du Plessis who "dissapeared" with a lot of client deposit money, etc. Zuka Safaris then took over Masaailand safaris and is doing fine despite a rocky start. They ar not associated with Gellini
4- Federico then began a new company and obtained the above blocks. In 2005, on one 5x5 hunt his clients took, in little over 14 days, 5 decent, legal size elephant bulls from the same area. I believe this was Kilwa? The fact that these were gutted and butchered in the field leaving behind a tell tale sign for other elephants to read could not have been a good move.
5- One of his PH's is a very "controversial" hunter who most others would prefer not to touch with a 10 foot pole. This is NOT my opinion as I have never met the guy.
6- Other than elephant, other game populations have been described to me to be average to poor. Lot's of cashew nut in those areas so at the right time, i suspect lot's of elephants to be found.

Thanks Bwanamitch, that is good info.

Bwanamich- Do you have any idea of what the lion quality is in those areas?

John

John,
From another outfitters mouth - who has hunted Kilwa block, etc is that there are not too many around. All these areas have villagers living there so with that, obvious activities such as poaching, timber and honey harvesting, fishing , etc must be pretty rampant. I understand they are huge areas so pockets exist where wildlife seeks refuge and that is where the hunting is best, IMO. As for "quality" the same genetics, etc of selous lions. If you find an old one, he will most likely have a very good mane.

Bwanamich- I thank you for the information.

John

last year Mr. Gellina was in EXA the hunting show in Italy. probably he will be also this year.

Quale data per cortesia?

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:

4- Federico then began a new company and obtained the above blocks. In 2005, on one 5x5 hunt his clients took, in little over 14 days, 5 decent, legal size elephant bulls from the same area. I believe this was Kilwa? The fact that these were gutted and butchered in the field leaving behind a tell tale sign for other elephants to read could not have been a good move.

Bwanaminch,

Out of curiosity what is the usual procedure to avoid putting off other elephant after one is shot? I've seent he photos on AR of the dirty bit of ground left after PAC hunts where everything is used, but had never thought about what might happen to the stomach contents and less desireable Offal. I just assumed it became Lion/hyena fodder. Did you just mean that5 lots in a week was a lot for the enviroment to absorb in a short space of time?

Rgds,
FB

In my experance with Elephant in communal land, the offal is a highly sort after food for the natives and often all that is left is the stomach content (nothing left for the wild life). which we burnt.
In remote areas some of the beast might be left but not often.
ozhunter

The idea behind keeping a good elephant block as undistrubed as possible is to avoid leaving too much evidence of butchering in the field.

Burning the sight of butchering sounds like a good idea to remove most of the smell trail. At least 1 serious elephant hunting operator in Bots actually load the ele carcass out of the field before butchering it back at HQ/camp. He shoot 50 - 60 elephants a season and that is how he is able to do it. If all that butchering took place in the field year in and year out, the remaining ele's would clear out of those areas pretty fast I would think!

I think very few operators that sell elephant hunts in the selous (and surrounding areas) are able to remove all of the meat, offal, etc from a shot elephant. inevitable some of the carcass remains behind - leaving a trail. Serious elephant hunting operators, yes, but these are less numerous than the standard hunting operator who also sells elephant hunts. Not sure if I am being clear on the difference between the two??

The resources require to "collect" all of the carcass from 5 elephants in short succession seem prohibitive for your average outfitter UNLESS you have an entire village next to each carcass tot ake care fo that; but then you still leave a messy patch that other elephants are able piece together and know they better stay clear of that place for a while.....

Maybe one reason (of many) that Zambezi elephants are relatively stressed with glands leaking continually.

quote:

He shoot 50 - 60 elephants a season

WOW!

He must have an enormous concession!

quote:

He must have an enormous concession!

Jeff Rann or Johan Calitz have different Consessions and shoot every Year 50-60 Elephants

quote:

Originally posted by mboga biga bwana:

quote:

He must have an enormous concession!

Jeff Rann or Johan Calitz have different Consessions and shoot every Year 50-60 Elephants

correct

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
In 2005, on one 5x5 hunt his clients took, in little over 14 days, 5 decent, legal size elephant bulls from the same area. I believe this was Kilwa? The fact that these were gutted and butchered in the field leaving behind a tell tale sign for other elephants to read could not have been a good move.

Could you expand on this? I thought all Elephant were butchered where they fell. Is there a right and wrong way to do it so other Elephant don't know what took place?

In remoter regions of the Selous, which is completely unpopulated, it is impossible to butcher an elephant in the field.

But relatively few elephant are shot each year in the Selous, perhaps fifty in a good year. And the size of the Selous is enormous - as large as Switzerland. So, fifty carcasses spread over such an area are not such a big deal.

Also, we should not forget that elephant die of causes other than gunshot - many, especially cows in the Selous, of old age.

quote:

Originally posted by bulldog563:
Could you expand on this? I thought all Elephant were butchered where they fell. Is there a right and wrong way to do it so other Elephant don't know what took place?

This was new to me too into a few weeks ago. One of the PH/outfitters with a smallish (maybe 10000 acres) but active private area along Hwange uses a crane to transport the dead ele's back to camp for butchering, otherwise the area would be avoided by all ele's. Sounded odd at the time, but makes sense, and they must have learned this the hard way, otherwise they obviously wouldn't go to the trouble and expense.

Along these lines, I was told of another outfitter who at least at one point used a tracker on a bike to ride the boarder road looking for fresh tracks between the hunting area and a park, as the ele's can "smell" the truck activity. I don't know if this is true, but we did observe an old ele come out of the Hwange Park, walk the road which we had been driving, then go back over the RR tracks into the Park not more then 30 yards later.

I personally have a great deal of respect for the elephants ability to learn and adapt. And because one needs to consider and deal with considerations such as these, hunting boarders can be frustrating at times.