Anybody hunted Ugalla lately? How are the lion there?

Hunted Ugala a few years ago.

Very few then.

And you need to bear in mind that lions are a bit unpredictable.

I hunt lion every year.

Several I have not been able to get one.

Some years I got lucky and got two.

Incredible as it might seem - to me at least - last year got two lions and leopard with out setting foot in a blind!

Which Ugalla block?

Saeed,

Ain't that the truth with lion?

Storms,

Eastern side.

I don’t keep track of how many I have shot.

Missed on some years.

At least on three occasions have shot two on one safari.

Never shot two leopards on one safari though, despite the fact of trying.

Last year’s leopard was something else.

We walked to the bait.

There was no blind, just a grass wall with an opening in it for bow hunters.

It was in the morning, sun was quite up.

Stopped the truck and were walking to the bait.

The leopard was lying in the grass close by, and was growling at us.

Got to the grass wall, and decided to at sort of wings to it to hide us.

The bait was in a tree in a dry river bed.

And right across from us, nice buffalo bulls, I think two walked just by.

Very easy to shoot.

We actually started discussing following them after we shoot the leopard in a sort of joke way.

We walk to the truck which was a few yards away while our trackers built the blind.

Suddenly Lima, our driver comes running to tell us the leopard was on the bait!

In plain sight of the trackers??!!

Off we went and stood there.

A few minutes later he was up the tree looking at us.

A few minutes later everyone was singing KABOOBI KABOOBI!

If you do this long enough, you will see many amazing things, and you will never cease to be amazed!

Harpreet Brar, Rungwa Safaris

They have the south half. The North half has been turned into a National Park?

Pretty sure the eastern side is taken by a local Bohra family, that hosts the hunts with the head of their religion every year. Believe they took a nice simba in that Ugalla block last year.

quote:

R

Thanks all. I'm pretty clear on the situation and all that. My question is how the reserve and surrounding communal areas are for lion, lately. Because as Saeed noted, things change.

The problem with Ugalla South is that it borders with Ugalla National Park. The Ugalla river is the boundary and in the prime hunting period of Aug to Oct, practically the only water source left in the block and more importantly, the only water body where one can find hippo (important for lion bait) and crocodiles if you are hunting one.

With the hunting regs prohibiting any hunting within 1 km of a National Park boundary (The Ugalla River), it basically means the entire river and it's myriad oxbow lakes are out of bounds. This fact alone will have an impact on your hunt, as the floodplain along this water source is the core hunting area of the block along its entire length.

Furthermore, the habitat of the combined "Ugalla" ecosystem (Ugalla Nat Park, Ugalla South and Ugalla East) of around 4000 sqkm, could not host more than a handful of lion prides. Considering a nice "chunk" of that is now a National Park, you would be hunting a low lion density area with fairly low probability on a legal male.

My 2 cents worth.