I was on Cabela's website looking at the hunts they offer in Africa and I stumbled accross this:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/community/int...africa/soaf_72aa.jsp

It is a "Burchell Oryx" hunt. Suposedly they are the rarest antelope species in the world and they cost $10k. I've never heard anything about them. So, I "Googled" the name and got this website:

Frontier Safaris

If you look on the right side of the page and click on the link that says "Hunt Namibia with Burchell Safaris", it will bring you to a page where it has the same description as the hunt on the Cabela's website.

Has anybody else heard of these? Perhaps someone on AR from Namibia can elaborate. I would be interested to learn more about these things.

From the Frontier Safaris web site (the page that Eland Slayer indicated):

BURCHELL GEMSBUCK

"We are very proud to introduce the Burchell Gemsbuck to the Trophy Hunter. It is a beautiful antelope, and is the rarest antelope specie in the world. They were discovered by Fred Burchell in some very rough canyon areas of Namibia. Through a lot of hard work and much research, we managed to find a few pockets of the animals. After 3 years of game capture, they were brought to our ranch South of Namibia where have settled very well and are also breading very well. Their numbers are now over a 100. Due to good game management, some of these magnificent Burchell Gemsbuck Trophies are now available to hunt and would be a great opportunity for any hunter."

http://www.frontiersafaris.com/burchellframe.htm


Personally, I have my doubts about this. Just my opinion: It might be a local variation of the Gemsbok but I really doubt if it's a true species or sub species. I'd want to see some credible taxonomic info about it.

-Bob F.

I put it to the test and:
1)It feels like shit
2)It smells like shit
3)It tastes like shit

Therefore it must be shit!

Rarest antelope in the world and nobody minds that you come over and kill a few.That will not fly even in Africa.

If you look at the "Species" link on their web site they do not even have it listed.

But then again, a $10k oryx is probably the rarest antelope in the world.

quote:

Rarest antelope in the world and nobody minds that you come over and kill a few.That will not fly even in Africa.

Exactly!!!!

Wait a minute.I am sorry and I need to apologize.I just heard that an ugly gemsbok agreed to have sexual relations with a social climbing burchell's zebra and.....

Now you know the rest of the story.

Ya'll are pretty much saying what I was thinking. I think this may be like a genetic disorder in Gemsbok and this guy just has an abnormally large concentration of them. I think it's . The only Oryx that consistenly costs $10k is the Arabian Oryx and those are mostly hunted in Texas (there are a few in RSA as "exotics" and they cost about the same). I think this guy is just trying to take advantage of some ignorant first time hunters that don't know very much about African game. I'm surprised Cabela's is falling for something like this. Just my opinion.

I hunted with them in 02 and they were telling me about this sub-species or mutation of Gemsbok. It is also refered to as a golden Gemsbok as I recall they said the face area which is normaly black was golden brown and some other color variations in the body color. I don't know but that some day it will be like the White Blesok. They were not offering a hunt for them and I did not see any. As to first time hunters I don't think it has anything to do with it. Of course you know this is the family whos ansestors discovered the Burchell Zebra. Oh yes by the way the Burchell Zebra is extint (sp). What is hunted now as a Berchell or plains Zebra is the Chapmans sub species. As I understand only Cabelas books for them they do not even do any of their booking. I guess you could call them a slave to Cabelas.

Guys,

I really don't know the whole story on the Buchell's oryx but they look quite differnt from the Gemsbok or Giant oryx. Basically they have no dark markings. We book for Frontier so I don't think Cabela's has anything special going on with them.

What I do know is that Frontier has some monster kudu available in Namibia and for an Eastern Cape collection they offer a very attractive package.

Mark