Dear Mr Harland,

The reason I am posing these questions publicly is because I believe the answers/info that come from them will be of interest to our common friends on this forum.

One of my favorite utterances (I believe I have declared it on AR at some stage) is that no man ever shot more elephants than Clem Coetsee, and no man ever did more for elephants then Clem Coetsee. That one really perplexes the antis, though you and I can clearly see how it could be. I still stand 100% behind the part about Clem doing more for elephants than anyone else, but, horror of horrors, discovered recently that I may be wrong regarding who shot the most! One of my friends pointed out that he was of the belief that Paul Grobler shot more elephants than Clem. Of course, I defended my stance staunchly and will continue to do so until proven wrong by someone who is more in the know, like yourself for example. I know there is nobody else who has more knowledge of Paul Grobler's hunting/culling activities than yourself.

The number of elephants Clem Coetsee shot was of no importance to him (he hated culling), but from him, his son Vickers and others, I have come to the conclusion that he shot somewhere around 12000 during his culling days. After this long intro, my main question is do you have any idea how many elephants Paul Grobler shot in his career? I would appreciate it if you could help me put this debate to rest. What about the old timers? Bell, Selous etc? Any idea how many they shot? I know their hunting cannot be compared to modern day culling, but it would be interesting to know nonetheless. Whilst we are on the topic and if you don't mind answering, how many elephants have you personally shot? I understand that it is not a big deal to you guys who have done it, but it is to some of us who haven't and never will do it. I shall ask Barrie Duckworth how many he shot when I next see him. Call me curious...

Thank you for your time

Respectfully,

David

The old time hunters, did they really have an accurate count of eles shot not including the Zambesi ladies in self defense... The culling numbers maybe documented and to answer your question I have no idea...

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
The culling numbers maybe documented

Mike

It would be very interesting to find out if they were and are still in existence. Maybe Ganyana could enlighten us a little?

Dave

Hi David

Richard is out of town and don't think the phone is working...

Between 1980 and 1993 Clem lead a culling team that took 22,000 elephants. Most were shot by clem although obviously a fair number fell to the two lads on flank duty or were calves that were put down after all the adults were down.

On the one cull I have on film Clem shot 24 out of the 30 elephants in the herd. took him just over two minutes.

I would think 12,000 is a conservative estimate- and the parks official records "credit" him with shooting over 16,000.

He was a giant in a generation of awsome parks officers, and was glad to count him as a friend.

Ganyana,

Thanks very much for that info! Absolutely mind-boggling. I would love to see that film sometime.

Yes, Clem certainly was a giant, in every aspect of his life. It was an absolute honour to know him. Of course, he is well known here for the culling ops he did, but I don't think many people know much about his other conservation efforts. He was the first guy in Zim (anywhere?) to translocate live elephants in numbers (the current Save Conservancy population), and he also translocated rhino to other countries. Were it not for Clem's game capture operations, I shudder to think what would have happened during the 91/92 drought. What is most interesting is that Clem kept a diary each and every day of his life, and also left behind a huge photograph collection. I must go and visit Em sometime for tea....

Thanks again Ganyana

Dave