Wow!!! 18 million ZA Rand.
Is that about USD$2.3M

World Record Price

Reading the story and posted comments there, this seems to me to be an incredibly wise idea in terms of building healthy and spectacular herds. That augurs well for the future of the breed throughout Africa, since this bull's progeny might end up anywhere needed.

It seems like one of the rare success stories in recent years for the future of African hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by TrackersNZ:
Wow!!! 18 million ZA Rand.
Is that about USD$2.3M

World Record Price

DAMN!!! And people say Texans are crazy about our whitetail!! Good lord....

quote:

Originally posted by Anjin:
Reading the story and posted comments there, this seems to me to be an incredibly wise idea in terms of building healthy and spectacular herds. That augurs well for the future of the breed throughout Africa, since this bull's progeny might end up anywhere needed.

It seems like one of the rare success stories in recent years for the future of African hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by TrackersNZ:
Wow!!! 18 million ZA Rand.
Is that about USD$2.3M

World Record Price

somehow i doubt a bull in a penned herd in RSA is going to spreading any seed anywhere else in Africa- at least not in the next hundred years.

I wouldn't pay 18 dollars.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
I wouldn't pay 18 dollars.

Somehow we knew that

SSR

Well, the idea of applying srtificial insemination to cape buffalo does rather boggle the mind.

My thought was that his progeny might be released into other herds around Africa if there was sufficient incentive.

Norm
_____

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

somehow i doubt a bull in a penned herd in RSA is going to spreading any seed anywhere else in Africa- at least not in the next hundred years.

quote:

Originally posted by Anjin:
Well, the idea of applying srtificial insemination to cape buffalo does rather boggle the mind.

My thought was that his progeny might be released into other herds around Africa if there was sufficient incentive.

Norm
_____

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

somehow i doubt a bull in a penned herd in RSA is going to spreading any seed anywhere else in Africa- at least not in the next hundred years.

I suspect the only place his progeny will be released is into another pen from which to be shot!

I can't think of a single scenario where his offspring would be given away by the owner, who paid big R's for this bull's semen, just to be turned loose into a wild herd. Then add in the issues with "Clean" herds and so on and it seems even more remote of an idea that the offspring would be translocated to another country. Etc, Etc.

I think he will probably spend the rest of his life in one of those frozen genetic "bull juice in a tube" farms and I doubt he will ever get to naturally mate again.

Considering what he cost I don't think I would allow him that oppertunity.

quote:

Originally posted by Anjin:
Well, the idea of applying srtificial insemination to cape buffalo does rather boggle the mind.

My thought was that his progeny might be released into other herds around Africa if there was sufficient incentive.

Norm
_____

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

somehow i doubt a bull in a penned herd in RSA is going to spreading any seed anywhere else in Africa- at least not in the next hundred years.

do you seriously think that African countries that can't even provide food and medical care for their people are going to pay for shooting sperm up a wild( or otherwise)cow buffalo's behind?? call me stupid, but somehow i doubt it. you don't exactly "release" sperm into a buffalo herd and i seriously doubt that magnanimous game ranchers are going to turn loose a bunch of buffalo back into the wild. maybe i am a pessimist- BUT I DOUBT IT1

jdollar,

You live in Fresno, California home of Fresno State Agriculture college and you are surrounded by thousands of dairys yet you don't get basic livestock husbandry 101?

Who is to say they don't have some cows in small pens to breed him to through AI?

Keeping him as an AI sire means that he can breed 500-1000 cows a year for the rest of his life.

Also means keeping him disease free by not running with wild buffalo.

and do you really think the owners of the bull are going to breed him to wild buff cows, THEN TURN THEM LOOSE BACK INTO THE WILD?? GET REAL! the whole point of my response was the guy who seemed to think this bull's genetics were going to eventually end up back in the wild population and thereby lead to "bigger" bulls. might happen in the next 100 years, but doubtful. hell, i breed and raise cattle and i don't let my bull wander around screwing whatever neighbor's cows he pleases.

Maybe I'm wrong, but as I recall, cape buffalo are not the easiest things to keep in a pen, or keep out of the pen, for that matter either.

Will this bull be breeding wild animals himself? No. If he does, it will likely be caught in the pen with the rest of the owner's livestock anyhow.

But the G2 level offspring will likely be released on game ranches (if for no other reason than to be hunted) and may have some interaction with the wild herds around Krueger or one of the other parks.

I doubt that he will have significant impact on SA buffalo genetics as a whole, especially with the usual regression to the mean, but it does not mean that he will not have some of his genes passed on in general.

In any case, someone took one heck of a flyer that this guy will produce offspring with his level of horn that will make his investment back in the long run. It is pretty unlikely that he will know of the success of that bet for 7-10 years, either.

I fear there is a gross misunderstanding of the status of Buffalo in Africa and the need for fences or "pens" as some refer to them here.

This price paid for this particular individual is basically a product of one single fact and that is that all wild buffalo in Subsharan Africa are unclean ie having had contact with or are reservoirs for the following diseases. FMD, Bovine TB, Brucellosis
( Contagious Abortion) and Corridor disease.

Under our and international Vetinary laws animals with this status have to be separated from domestic cattle hence the need for fence laws.

This was the basis for the wholesale culling to the point of extinction of buffalo in human habited and farmed land and why buffalo are only found in reserves.

In South Africa Game ranchers and some non game ranching farmers realized the economic potential of breeding core herds of disease free buffalo especially after the revelation that wild herds were in danger of possibly disappearing completely mainly due to contact with bovine TB carried by unclean rural domestic cattle. ( The Bovine TB problem in wild animals in the KNP was really the kick start event that brought about the clean buffalo concept)

Like other Wild bovines buffalo domesticate easily and can now even be found on domestic farms in areas long since devoid of wildlife. These buffalo are farmed as one would domestic cattle.



This picture is of a small group of heiffers from our own clean buffalo project, these have been separated, earmarked, vaccinated and inpsected and quarantined, once they calve the calves will be immediately separated from the cows, wet nursed by a Yersey cow never to be released in a diseased area again.

The entity of hunting, shooting or killing as the only vehicle to ensure survival does not enter this process. It is a fallacy to think that hunting is the only factor that protects the future of wildlife in Africa.