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These are the skulls at the taxidermist's. All mature animals. They are all going to be head/shoulder mounts.

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For those of you that have not been to Africa yet; these are the famous (infamous?) Wait-a-bit Thorn bushes. The spikes are up to 2.5" in length.

Rich

Rich,

Nice looking set of trophies. Congratulations.

On the thorns, those are nasty sure enough but I am not sure whether they are wait-a-bits. Wait-a-bits have a wonderful little hook tip that means to unsnag yourself you actually have to go backwards to get the bastards out of your hide. This looks like buffalo thorn.

Like Mike, I've always thought the "wait-a-bits" were the little opposing hooked thorns like the acacia brevispica.

What's important is that it looks like you had a very good safari and took some very nice trophies. I've never seen a Caracal (outside of a cage), you're lucky.

Very nice trophies Rich. Congratulations!!!

Brett

Nice trophies!

On the thorns they are a real bitch. I have many scars from them, seems I can all ways find the thorns even if there is only one in a square mile area.

Nice trophies..

thorn bush in the pic is called monkey thorn (at least that is what I was told it was called!)... the bush that was shown to me and called wait-a-bit bush had a hooked tip.

When I was living up there, I broke off a monkey thorn between my cuticle and nail in my middle finger deep into the meat(I remember we were gathering wood for a 4th of July braii w a bunch of clients). I had to go to the Dr. in Ellisras 3 days later to get lanced and removed. It was PAINFUL..

I have a very nice close up photo of a wait-a-bit that buried itself in my forearm and then broke off.
That was fun digging it out.

None of you gentlemen got a Camelback thorn I take it? Wicked to be sure.

We were 100K northeast of Ellisras, a small town named Steenbokpan.

Rich

Congratulations on your hunt,Idaho.A real nice kudu.

Congrats Rich...sounds like you had a great time

Richard,
Nice trophies and congrats, You can see I'm a newbie via my posts, so excuse me but is it this forum's etiquette for one thread per animal? I think I would like to post some of my own.

Nganga

Actually, no. I am photo challenged, and my nephew (in an attempt to aid me) did the first two animal photos separately.

After you have been here awhile you will understand that ISS does some things a bit, shall we say, "different". I can't explain it, things just turn out oddly from time to time for me.

Rich

I had 7 stitches in my bottom right lip while in South Africa in 2003 because of those dirty little buggers while riding in the back of a bakkie looking for mountain reedbok late one afternoon. I didn't see the branch coming, due to the direct sunlight, and by the time that I saw it, all I could do was duck, close my eyes and hope for the best. Here's a pic of me with the stitches a couple of days later with a great springbok.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Actually, no. I am photo challenged, and my nephew (in an attempt to aid me) did the first two animal photos separately.

After you have been here awhile you will understand that ISS does some things a bit, shall we say, "different". I can't explain it, things just turn out oddly from time to time for me.

Rich

If I have a trophy room that I think is ok can I post it here as well?

Yes, there is a specific forum for trophy rooms.

Rich

Great looking heads Rich. Welcome home and congratulations.

That is neither a wait-a-bit(wag 'n bietjie) nor a monkey thorn ... it's a White Thorn (Witdoring). The roots of this tree have medicinal uses. A wait-a-bit has hooked thorns (swarthaakdoring ... blackthorn) and is more a bush than a tree. A monkey thorn has hooked thorns but broader than a wait-a-bit, and it's a tree. Then there is the umbrella thorn, with a characteristic flat top, that has long straight thorns paired with small hooked thorns..

Nice trophies and a Cardinals shirt---I approve!

Way to go ISS, welcome back. I see the tracking dog is still on the job in the pic, those guy's never stop.

Your trophy wall will look spectacular!

Rich, nice going. I have wanted a caracal since my first trip but three trips later I have yet to see one.

I did get to experience those thorns a few times, the worst one being when I jumped off the truck to follow my daughter on a stalk and landed right on a broken off branch of thorns. One was just postioned perfectly to go through the bottom of my boot and fairly deep into the bottom of my foot.

I also got to watch our PH get one caught in his nostril as were watching a steenbuck in the bush as the truck was moving and he turned his head back just in time to get caught.

It damn near took him right off the truck!