I've had an outfitter that has lost or quit hunting in the Selous, to tell me that his reasons for leaving was that it was overshot for Buffalo. His excuse was that his consession had been divided into 16 new consessions. The old consession had a quota of 50 Buffalo. Now he says that each new consession has a quota of 50 buffalo each. He says that they are now shooting 800 Buffalo where they did only shoot 50.

I'm real unbelieving on this, and thought that you guys could tell me for sure. I think that this guy lost his hunting for some other reason, and is just feeding me a lie.

Somebody tell me the truth.


/

He is. Tanzania has very strict game laws, quotas and game management policies. In the peak of the season it's possible to see herds of 1000 or so buff in the Selous. The reason for the strictness is that they don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.......and believe me, no-one voluntarily gives up a concession in the Selous.



Selous concession leases have just been renewed, and some might have had their boundaries altered slightly, but nowhere near that extent.



I've been hunting the Selous (and other areas of TZ) for many years now and the game populations (esp Buffalo) were better last year than I've ever seen before. Having said that there are companies offering hunting 'just outside' or 'adjacent to' or 'near' the Selous. What that actually means is the Selous buffer zone. These are less expensive, but are a waste of time and money. Most have ever enlarging human populations who all have to poach to exist. Hence the lack of game. Selous proper allows no human habitation except hunting and photo safari camp staff (and game scout posts). All trace of habitation and all staff have by law to be moved out of the Selous at the end of each hunting season.



Before you book it is a good idea to look at the safari contact and insist it has full details of the specific hunting area..... hope that helps.

I hope I am not posting twice on this subject as my computer went heywire....

Toby,
I think someone is feeding you a line of bull, perhaps they could not come up with a concession to hunt and are trying to bow out gracefully..I could probably tell you if I knew who you were dealing with, but that's neither here nor there...

The Selous has improved dramatically every year for the past say 5 or 6 years in both numbers and trophy quality and most of the big bulls have been coming out of there..

The Mayowashi is historically good but has some real problems now with poaching by waring troops from bordering countries who are coming up river and killing buffalo to feed an army...

The Masai Steep has traditionally big bulls if you have a ton of money and lots of time to hunt there, mostly you have to wait them out of the park...the Northwest is also very good trophy quality, but also very expensive...I can and do hunts in all these areas, but my choice is the Selous..Last year I shot the best buffalo of my life there and I see some 44" and better bulls there every year...

The Selous has suffered on the internet from pure BS by half baked African hunters that spread rumors about certain blocks that are purely false and they are supposed "professional hunters", but they must have an agenda to make statements like some I have read..

I agree with Shakari, the Selous is better than ever, and our host and I will be hunting Buffalo there again this year.......