Russian Oligarch to Offer Wooly Mammoth Hunt in 2024

While in Moscow this past week I read an article in a Russian/English business magazine that floored me. It even mentions a few members of Accurate Reloading! Here it is in its entirety as published in the Russkaya Business Journal:

Wooly Mammoth Safari? Japanese and Russian Team Says ‘Yes’!

Source: ITAR-TASS

Omsk, 1 April 2013 (ITAR/Russkaya Business Journal) – What does an oligarch do when his passion is hunting exotic game throughout the world only to find that he has collected every animal he has dreamed of?

Ivan A. Kutchurkokov, who made his billions after he purchased and then revived to its former glory the former Soviet State Prosthetics & Scatological Research Industries, is just such a man. His answer? To resurrect the wooly mammoth from extinction and offer it as the ‘ultimate’ big game trophy.

Known for his unparalleled and equally priceless antique collections, ranging from Chrysler automobiles to 18th-century Russian mouth organs, Kutchurkokov is also believed to be the most prolific safari hunter in the world. Yes, the world! According to his biographer, he has personally shot over 925 Cape buffalo, 210 elephant, 37 lions, 25 African leopards, two Amur leopards, nine South African jaguar, 17 white rhinoceros, seven black rhinoceros, two Florida panthers, 16 Siberian tigers, three Javan rhinoceros, 17 polar bear, a giant panda, and countless lessor game around the world.

In 2006, he became renowned for killing a lion with a single poison-tipped arrow from a cross-bow mounted to the undercarriage of his self-designed ultra-light hunting aircraft. He nearly crashed in the process, and it became a ‘shot’ heard around the world making him much admired in international hunting and flying circles.

Kutchurkokov is also not without his detractors, and has been widely criticized for deliberately infecting Cape buffalo with rabies on his South African game ranch with the intent of creating a more ferocious - and as he says, the ultimate - 'dangerous game'. An unintended consequence of this practice was a vicious and near fatal attack by a rabid ground squirrel on Kutchurkokov's fourth wife, Trixie, while accompanying him on a hunt.

Ivan A. Kutchurkokov hunting with Russian President Vladimir Putin

In an interview with TASS/Siberian Digest during which he talked about his passion for hunting, the 56-year old Kutchurkokov explained, “Elephant hunting is the most dangerous and rewarding big game hunt in the world. Unfortunately, due to lots of poaching and very stupid game management (by African governments), African elephant ivory has been getting smaller and smaller and it is rare to find one hundred pounders (tusks) anymore. Frankly, if isn’t over 100-pounds, why bother? Besides the Americans, who wants to collect toothpicks?”

Kutchurkokov went on to say, “While on a business trip to Japan, I met a fellow hunter and scientist who told me of plans to clone a mammoth, the crowning symbol of earth’s ice age 12,000 years ago. When he told me that an average mammoth produced tusks that weighed as much as 250-pounds each and measured up to 18-feet in length, I knew two things: I wanted to kill one and that there was a business to be made.

“I spoke with Dr. Akira Iritani, a professor emeritus at Kyoto University in Japan. He has built upon research at the Kikurasan Center for Developmental Biology, which has successfully cloned animal cells that have been frozen for many years. We agreed to create a partnership called the Kikurasan-Kutchurkokov Institute for Advanced Safari Biogenetics. Our goal is not to bring back dinosaurs but rather to recreate the worlds most exotic prehistoric dangerous mammals for both science and, of course, hunting by a select few.”

Asked if this was just a ‘Jurassic Park’-like fantasy, Kutchurkokov pointed out how they have already extracted DNA from a mammoth carcass found frozen in the Siberian tundra and preserved it in a Russian laboratory he owns. Soon they will insert it into the egg cells of an African elephant provided as a gift by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife in order to create a mammoth embryo. The first baby mammoth will be produced early next year.

"When the cloned embryo is created, we need to discuss how to breed [the mammoth] for both scientific study and for purposes of hunting, the monies from which will help to fund long-term research," Iritani said, in an interview with Rising Sun Today. "After the mammoth is born, we'll examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct, and how best to ensure it’s long-term survival as a huntable species in its native Siberia and elsewhere."

Asked when the first such hunt would be offered, Iritani replied, “Due to the accelerated maturing process of mammoths compared with African or Indian elephants, mature bull (male) mammoths should be 15-feet at the shoulder and ready for harvest with 150-plus pound ivory within as little as ten years”.

According to a prospectus issued by the Kikurasan-Kutchurkokov Institute, deposits will be taken in April 2014 for the first mammoth hunts tentatively scheduled for the Summer of 2024. The Institute has a lease from the Russian government for over one million acres near Yakutsk, Siberia, where the first hunts will be held.

Preliminary response from the global hunting community has already been overwhelming. When asked for the price of a wooly mammoth hunt, a spokesperson said that preliminary estimates are between € 125,000 and € 200,000 euros if an early deposit is paid.

One well known hunter and businessman, Sheikh Saeed al-Maktoum of Dubai, UAE, has already secured the first commercial wooly mammoth hunt slated for 2024. Calling for confirmation, a man answered his office phone claiming to be Sheikh al-Maktoum’s “Aide d’Camp and majordomo”. For security reasons, he who would only give his first name of ‘Walther’, and responded, “Yes, it’s true. Saeed and I are looking forward to this adventure. I see it as a bonus that it is ten years away as that is about how long it takes to properly prepare for a safari. However, Saeed is even more excited at the prospect that Mr. Kutchurkokov might soon clone a Pelorovis, which is a prehistoric ancestor to the Cape buffalo. With horns reaching over six-feet wide, it has the potential for being a particularly dangerous hunt were it not for my shooting tutelage to the Sheikh and my serving once again as his backup.”

Pelorovis lived only 4,000 years ago and stood almost 7-feet at the shoulder with horns having a spread of up to seven feet. Genetic cross-breeding with today’s Cape buffalo may yield trophies with 65-75 inch horns within a few years.

Safari Club International, an American hunting association, has enthusiastically embraced Kutchurkokov’s plans. The SCI’s president and all of its’ board members were flown to Monte Carlo in Monaco this past February to view a presentation on the Institute’s hunting plans while living and dining onboard Kutchurkokov’s 365-foot mega-yacht, the Укус моя колбаса.

The presentation, which took just over two weeks including negotiations, resulted in a promise from SCI that it would create a new hunting category for ‘formerly prehistoric dangerous game’ and offer medals, rings, and “very large trophies” for those hunters successful in harvesting a mammoth.

As he was deplaning Kutchurkokov’s Gulfstream G-V jet on arrival back in the US, one enthusiastic board member commented, “If it were up to me, I would make Ivan (Kutchurkokov) SCI’s ‘Hunter of the Millennium’. For hunters like me, he’s Thomas Edison, Ron Popeil, and Dr. Moreau rolled into one super great guy.”

The Institute’s plans also include exporting breeding pairs for elephant hybridization to other countries, including Zimbabwe. Kutchurkokov is working with a well-known safari company in that country that specializes in elephant hunts but who wishes to remain anonymous for the time being. Cross-breeding with African elephants could result in as much as a 250% increase in tusk weight, according to Iritani, along with a more hirsute pachyderm. Such a program could begin in late-2014, if approval is given by Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe.

Asked for confirmation, a senior aide to President Mugabe, speaking off-the-record, was quoted as saying, “While it would be intriguing to see Zimbabwe become the center of the world in this advanced science, we must have assurances that these scientists will restrict their efforts to cloning game animals only and not, for example, Ian Smith.”

Well known Zimbabwean elephant hunter Buzz Charlton refused to confirm or deny that his company was in negotiations with Kutchurkokov. However, when pressed for a statement, Charlton said, “We cannot comment on that right now, but I will admit that offering 150 pound ivory would be a strong enticement to many of our clientele”. Charlton went on to acknowledge that there were at least two issues that could pose problems for the scheme.

“First”, he said, “I have enough trouble getting my clients to pay their deposits ten months in advance, let alone ten years. Second, the fact is that most elephant hunters are men, and asking them to take aim and shoot at a humongous phallus-like trunk surrounded by two round and hairy objects (the ears) may be very uncomfortable for them. Women, on the other hand, may see it as quite the incentive,” said Charlton.

As for additional animals being cloned by the Kikurasan-Kutchurkokov Institute, officials are being closed mouthed for now. But rumors include the possibility of other currently extinct mammals being offered for safari, including the sabre tooth tiger, the cave hyena, and the giant lagomorph.

Kim

Merkel Double .470 NE
Whitworth Express .375 H&H
Griffin & Howe .275 Rigby
Winchester M70 (pre-64) .30-06 & .270

"Cogito ergo venor" René Descartes on African Safari

Posts: 526 | Registered: 05 August 2008

Todd Williams

One of Us

posted

	View $GS_USERNAME's Public Profile
	Add $GS_USERNAME to my Buddies
	Add $GS_USERNAME to my Ignore ListRemove $GS_USERNAME from my Ignore List
	Invite $GS_USERNAME to a Private Topic
	View Recent Posts by $GS_USERNAME
	Notify me of New Posts by $GS_USERNAME

Quick Reply to: Russian Oligarch to Offer Wooly Mammoth Hunt in 2024
Guest Name

Close \| Use Full Posting Form \| Quick Quote

THE ACCURATERELOADING.COM AFRICAN HUNTING FORUM