Moyowosi In Tanzania

26 May 2004, 05:18

Has anyone here ever hunted in Moyowosi? I hear it is close to 2.5 million acres under strict quality lion management practices. What is the hunting and terrain like there?

Here is a picture of 4 lions in Moyowosi that were deemed too young to shoot in 2003.

You'll see Moyowosi just SW of Lake Victoria in this map:

26 May 2004, 05:36

Atkinson

I have hunted the Mayowashi many times and its always been one of my favorite areas....Pierre usually hunts the Mayowashi but decided not to this year as the Army from the adjoining country is in a civil war and they are floating up the river and shooting Buffalo and whatever to feed the troops, and that can be very dangerous to clients and staff..Hopefully we can return in 2005 or 2006..

26 May 2004, 11:48

Atkinson

I agree with Adam on this one, I see quit a few shootable lions in these photos and some near shootable...and if the truth were known I believe this safari company would shoot some of these Lions also, perhaps the hunter just turned them down...I have seen photos of Lions shot by this company that the lions were less than what we see here, but I don't know exactly where they shot them....

If you pass on some of these Lions, chances are you will not see better. About all a couple of them need is some black hair, and thats not going to happpen with them, what you see is all they will ever be...

I think the problem your referring is when an alpha male is shot, then the up an coming Lion king will kill all the cubs, but thats going to happen when the big boy dies or gets run off anyway...so I have reservation on that theory..the mortality on Lions is very high, and as a matter of fact that is not going to change no matter what we do unless we move them all to Idaho, then Idaho fish and game would mis manage them and they would become extinct like our deer and phesants...

26 May 2004, 13:01

MARK H. YOUNG

Spring,

Lion 15 is one we turned down in Kisigo last year. A nice picture taken by Guy Rowe but as you can see he is lacking hair on top of his head.

We set and watched this one for some minutes with our wind going right to him. When we opened the "Gut Bucket" he started right up toward the cruiser and we retreated. Loads of fun.

Regards,

Mark

26 May 2004, 15:17

Adam Clements

I thought these lions were turned down due to being young? Now we hear that lion #15 was turned down due to lacking hair! Sounds to me that #15 would have been shot if it had a big mane

26 May 2004, 15:51

MARK H. YOUNG

Adam,

I was only relating what I thought was an interesting experience that we had with a lion that I would not have been interested in if he was 10 years old. I sincerely apologize if anyone thought that lion was an old bald gentleman because of my inadequate description.

What I should of said is that it was a young lion that we encountered that did not fit the TGTS criterion of a shooter nor was he what I wanted.

Regards,

Mark

26 May 2004, 16:08

Adam Clements

Mark, just giving you a hard time

but good for you in knowing what you want and being patient even if it means not taking a lion.

26 May 2004, 20:06

Bwanamich

Quote:

I have hunted the Mayowashi many times and its always been one of my favorite areas....Pierre usually hunts the Mayowashi but decided not to this year as the Army from the adjoining country is in a civil war and they are floating up the river and shooting Buffalo and whatever to feed the troops, and that can be very dangerous to clients and staff..Hopefully we can return in 2005 or 2006..

Ray, a bit of clarification is needed here. The moyowosi hunting concession that you may be referring to is the very Northern concession which has been taking a hammering for the last couple of years. The concessions currently under management by TGT and WWS have absolutely no military presence of any kind except their own anti-poaching patrols; and this since a year now! I have just spoken to their manger responsible for their hunting blocks, who confirmed this. The Tanzanian Military has done a huge clean up operation last year in the concession you are referring to and to say that there is a threat to clients going hunting there is slightly irresponsible from your part.

Quote:

I was told that about 1/2 of the lions in this collection, and this group of four in particular, were photographed in Moyowosi.

Not only were most of these lions seen in moyowosi but they were all from the one concession they had in Moyowosi in 2003! That should say something about the lion population in those concession. I have spoken to several of their ph's (some of whom are the ones that actually turned down those that we here regard as NOT too young!) and office management about these lions and in some of the cases, they unanimously agreed that they needed one to two more years! 2003 + 1 year 2004

If I were you, i just couldn't wait to get there

Their strategy with regards to age seems to be not to shoot anything under 5 years old but preferrably 6 years and over. The experienced amongst us all seem to agree that in the wild, one is never sure about the age or status of a male lion! None of the TGT or WWS ph's claims to be able to do this with 100% certainty (at least the ones I questioned

) so the answer is; "when in doubt, turn it down!"

We can at least see for ourselves that they have an outstanding potential for large male lions in the coming 2 seasons. I would challenge any other operator to show what they got

27 May 2004, 18:56

Atkinson

Bwana,
Your clarification is correct. I was only refering to Pierres concession which I think belongs to the Italian, nothing to do with TGT, I don't book for them since the new takeover...