Looking down the road a couple of years I think I'd like to hunt an elephant. No doubt there are areas in various countries that are highly regarded. I saw a lot of elephants last September when in Chirisa in Zimbabwe. I've heard there are some other areas in the northern portion of Zim that are also very good. I've heard Botswana should also be considered as their total numbers are higher than Zim and that many elephants are moving there out of Zim due to the poaching pressure. Some areas of Tanzania have good ele hunting, and I probably should have worked that into my hunt there in '05 but that's just not a priority for my father/son trip then.
Considering that I'm very early in this process and just doing a little research, do any of you have any ideas or suggestions that you think I should consider?

What do you want from the hunt? For example:

long, thin ivory, over 50 lbs, but you may not get an elephant - Tanzania

heavy ivory, lots of big elephant, few roads, lots of walking, import license problems for the ivory - Mozambique

heavy ivory (60-70 lbs) basically guaranteed with a good outfitter in 14-21 days: Botswana

less expensive elephant hunt, but a lot of the ivory is under 50 pounds: Zimbabwe

retired national park bulls, big and expensive: South Africa

Spring,

And add Namibia to the list. They have the largest bodied elephant in Africa, and you can get some good weight of ivory too. There have even been some 100 pounders shot in the last several years, not many but some. I expect your hunt for a big bull would be in the $20,000s.

jim dodd

Based upon your characterizations, Botswana sounds good to me...

I think Botswana elephant hunts are going for about $35,000 to $45,000.

Regards,

Terry

Terry,
Any thoughts on why you think the an ele hunt would more in Botswana as compared to the cost that Jim suggested?

Spring,

Botswana is just a more expensive country to hunt than some others. You have to buy an expensive license there for each animal before you hunt and the cost of the hunt depends on the size of ivory. If you shoot a 50 pounder it is much less expensive than if you luck out and get a 75 pounder. I also think the level of service may be a notch above what you may find in some other places.

I personally am hunting in Botswana this year with Johan Calitz's outfit and would be willing to share the detail with you or anyone who wants to send me an e-mail.

This company states that a realistic expectation is an elephant carrying 60-70 pounds of ivory. I don't think most other operators in other countries would go that far out on a limb.

Good Hunting,

Mark

Spring,

I think Botswana consistantly produces bigger elephant trophies (along with very high success rates) than most other countries.

As to price, one outfitter sent me an email for a 10 day "all inclusive" elephant hunt for $43,500. This quote from their ad, "This area produces the most realistic chance for ivory of greater than 60 pounds per side in Africa today."

Look at this site for Calitz's priceing, http://www.silcom.com/~safaris/index.html

Regards,

Terry

Spring - I was told by a booking agent who has part of a concession in Zambia that elephant hunting MAY be opened in the next year or two, and apparently some of the concessions along the parks in the Luangwa Valley have some big bulls. I took it at face value, and do not know how true this is, what the costs will/would be (if consistent with the leopard and lion pricing, should be a bit less than Tanz & Botswana, but more than Zim), if there will be CITES, the type of ivory they carry, etc. But, it would be another one to add to the list if looking down the road a few years.

Another location is the East Caprivi Strip in Namibia, separating Angola from Botswana, although the disposition of the concession may be in question. Bulls in the 50-60+ range, and as was said, very big-bodied.

IF one can go on short notice and is looking at Botswana, there were a few Elephant hunt specials posted here on AR this past Sept (the end of their hunting season) in some of the prime areas. As I recall, $22-25K for hunts that were ~$35K+ if booked in advance.

Good luck!

These came out of Tanzania form the same outfitter between 2001 and 2002......as well as others. first tusk picture is 87 lbs and the smaller is 67 lbs (If i remember correctly??). The 2nd tusk picture is of 74 lbs. The nice thing about these Tanzanian elephants is that the ivory is on average longer than the Botswana and Namibian ivory and IMO much nicer to look at. A 6-7 foot long tusk of 55-60lbs is nicer to look at then say a 5 foot 70lbs



If interested, send me a PM for details of the outfitters' contacts.











Happy hunting!

Bwanamich,

What happened in that concession last season? There was talk that the outfiter had "figured out the migration pattern" and we were to expect some really big trophies out of that area.

You do have to admit that those aren't typical Tanzania tusks (which are more often long and thin).

Regards,

Terry

Terry,
I believe they took 1 elephant in that area between 40-50 lbs. A second they wounded and tracked it to where it crossed the border into Mozambique. They reported to the border post and hired some villagers to scout for him but never found him again. It appears he was a big one (aren't they all when they get away??? ). The villagers came back 3 days later saying they didn't find that one but they saw a bigger one and that if they wanted it they "could make a plan". That was when they decided to give up the hunt and record it as wounded and lost.....

I have seen photos of some of the live elephants they have seen during anti-poaching and camp building and they look pretty similar to the photos above. One in particular, nicknamed Moses, has been seen 3 times, once with client, but never caught up with it.

By the way, they book max 3 - 4 hunters there for elephants a season taking a max of 3 ele's. Like all ele hunting, if you want to shoot a legal ele, your chances are very high but for a really great ele, then success rate drops considerably and many variables come inot play. There aren't many of these big critters left roaming around anymore.......
Happy hunting!

I've just had a client had to postpone his Elephant hunt in Botswana until 2005 so the Elephant is now available again. There's no discount as we have just moved the hunt on a year.



If anyone is interested its a 10 day hunt and includes Elephant licence, dip & pack, airport transfer (from and to Maun) and EVERYTHING else (and of course our full back up service of safari planning & contract etc) except trophy fees. Cost is US$26650 and the Elephant trophy fee is US$10750 up to 50lbs per side, US$16250 50-60 lbs and US$22750 if over 60lbs......success rate over the few years is 100%.



It's available now, but won't remain unsold for long and the only dates available are anytime between 18-31st May.



I'll also try to make a seperate post on this later today.

Hi,

also a very good possible outfitter is McDonald ProHunt with one of its concessions in Mozambique - they shot two very nice 92/85 and 81 each bull there last year:



Best regards,

Erik

Terry,
How does this sound: I was just told I could add on an elephant to my exisiting Tanzania hunt for only a $4,000 trophy fee, only due if I get one. The caveat, however, is that they say the chances of getting one that meets the export qualifications is low! I'm supposed to get the details of what the export criteria are later today. May just get through my already scheduled hunt before deciding if I need to book a separate hunt just for elephant.

Erik T,

Americans can't import ivory from Mozambique.

Regards,

Terry

Spring,

It's my understanding that finding a shootable elephant in Tanzania can be difficult. Tanzania has size limits on elephant (minimum 1.75 meters and 20kg per tusk), shoot anything smaller and there is fine.

Obviously your outfitter is being honest with you when they say the chance of getting one is low.

So, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on elephant hunting until you get all of your other trophies.

The experienced elephant hunters say that when you want to hunt trophy elephant, you need to concentrate your efforts on just elephant hunting.

I was looking at an ad in a recent safari publication, one Tanzanian outfitter took only 3 elephants all of last season. That is probably a pretty good idea of how difficult it is to find a shootable elephant.

Regards,

Terry

Spring,

I am going to echo Terry here, elephant is a single purpose hunt. You are not going to want to shoot anything else in the area, and will want to spend your time tracking bulls.

Of course it is possible, though unlikely, to just encounter a bull while out hunting something else. I have seen this in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Trophy quality in those conditions is random.

jim

Jim and Terry,
Good advice. I can certainly see how carefully hunting an area only for a big bull elephant would increase your chances of finding a trophy.
Thanks for all the insightful input!

Vic

There are few elephants outside of the elephant concessions where big bulls are hunted, and essentially non-existent in areas where the trophy fee would be $4000.

Nothing is impossible but then neither is winning the lottery.

The only elephants I saw in Tanz where hiding within the confines of the non-shooting area around the scout camp.

Terry's comment about 3 Elephants per area per year is about right for the Selous.....we took 2 last year and on the 3rd hunt we must have looked at over 100 Bulls during the whole hunt and only saw 2 that were shootable....and they buggered off PDQ and didn't give us even a half a chance of a shot.

If you want to be really sure of getting a good bull then you can do no better than Botswana, but be prepared to spend a lot of money and book well ahead time as the areas only have very small quotas and they sell out early.

Spring,

I also could have shot an elephant in Muhesi/Kosigo but in 18 days there we only saw elephant 4 times and only one bull. All four times they were moving out at speed. Although there was little evidence of poaching when I was there last summer it was apparent the elephant had been hammered in the past.

Regards,

Mark