while i'm waiting for pictures of hunting i thought i'd note some of the things we saw in zambia. last time we were there was in 2000 and there has been lots of progress made since then. it seems that some of the white farmers from zim have moved to zambia and are bringing up the agriculture up by leaps and bounds. the populus in 2000 were to a large part poorly dress and now are very well dressed. Much new building construction was going on. In general it seemed like zambia is destined to become the zim of old.
Poaching - we were in tondwa which is in the northern portion, about 20K from tanz and 15K from congo. Poaching was being done on a larger scale than i've seen for awhile. In our area I shot puku, buffalo, and roan that were missing legs from snares. We saw one 40" type sable that was due to loose a leg with a snare. Puku and warthog were also seen with snares. Then one day we heard a shot and went to investigate. we came on 3 poachers. Our game scout (the best by far i've every seen) leaped out of the moving cruiser and starting sending AK rounds in their direction. We found their camp and destroyed it, finding their gun, which was quite a thing, made up in somebodys shop. (will have picts. latter) took their clothes, knives meat etc. but didn't catch them. Terry (PH) was really upset with the whole thing and was one the radio to laura duploy every night. The night before we left laura mentioned that she was having a meeting with the zawa director the next morning. On the road on the way out we met 5 carloads of poeple coming into the area. Didn't really pay attention, until that night in town when the national parks director came in to talk to terry. It was then we found out that they carloads were national game scouts. The azwa director had reacted to lauras complaint immediately. The parks director what sending in national park scouts the next day, and zawa had even call in an army unit. Lets say the poachers had a surprise. Our game scout had commented a couple days before that there something big going on but he couldn't do anything by himself without turning up dead. I haven't heard an outcome yet, but the govt. officials had taken the complaints very seriously and were doing everything they could immediately. Great to see. I have the feeling that there are a few less poachers today.
as we get it zambia is going to raise trophy fees by about 50% for next year, but concession fees etc are all to stay the same. While the costs are much above zim, they are much below tanz (especially with their raises) for those interested a short buffalo hunt with duploys would be in the 10-12000 range plus trophy fees, but in addition to buff croc puku and hippo could also be taken, which would make a pretty good combo hunt. More to come

Thanks for the information. I know when I was in Zimbabwe there was a lot of traffic headed to Zambia -- the price of copper seems to be spurring considerable growth.

Zambia (THE REAL AFRICA) is like the OLD ZIMBABWE/Rhodesia days ... Wonderful people, good hunting, and new investment climate for foreigners ...

My brother Alan now (personally) owns three private game ranches in Zambia as we see opportunities for the future there.

Remember that the WorldBank/IMF/EU grouping has totally wiped out all the Zambia debt and that has encouraged people/foreigners to make investments.

Nothing ventured nothing gained .....



C'mon on over and make yourself @ home

Cheers, Peter

Zambia needs to promote ten day buffalo hunts in the 12K range to get more Zim type hunters. We were there in 2000 and paid 7,000 for a ten day buff and common plains game hunt. Even back then sable, roan, and the cats were very expensive. Zim is still the place for ele cow and bull hunts on a budget.

Zambia is a really interesting place that I continue to research and observe with some interesting species not available in Zim. If Zim comes apart (and it's still very viable to me), then I will be looking very hard at Zambia and Namibia for future hunts.

Zambia does have a high quota of lion & leopard (about 130 each) and success in some of the better GMA's has been 90% on cats the last couple of years. Overall success on cats is as high as 60%.

One of the most positive things I have learned about Zambia is that in 2004 they tendered concessions to outfitters who will operate them the next 10-15 consecutive years. So many operators are investing money into their areas. This would eliminate several issues that we discuss here regularly.

Any thoughts on that from those who have been there?