What defines a mature trophy in a Big Five Species?

Leaving aside rhino as I have never seen anyone here admit to hunting one, what is the defining features to determine a mature specimen in a cape buffalo bull, a lion, a leopard, and an elephant?

What should the minimum characteristics be for a trophy animal of each species?

As clients many or most of us, myself included, do not have the experience or even opportunity to properly learn in the field by numerous hunts, many months on safari, looking over game, shooting specimens for the 'pot' or otherwise. We depend a lot on what the Professional tells us, especially as some regions can vary quite markedly from others. But even given this, a species is a species, and the defining characteristics of maturity in a species generally does not change. So knowing these can help a trophy hunter decide whether the sugested target animal is truly adequate.

Recently I looked at an old printed magazine by a reasonably famous hunter who wrote a lot about his African safaris but the photo of him with his leopard shows a truly immature, small leopard. Mistakes can happen but the size of the thing would have been embarrassing to me.

Also we often read of these tiny tusked elephant with tusks weighing sometimes 25 or 30 lbs being shot as trophies. Are these animals even mature yet? Or not?


Possible defining characteristics of maturity and trophy status:

Cape buffalo: Soft vs hard bosses; length and breadth of horns; shapr tips vs worn tips; scars; greying or whitening of skin and hair; other ?

Elephant: size of beast; length of tusks; wear on tusks; yellowing of tusks (?); width of tusks; length of tusk nerve; weight of tusks; wrinkles (!?); width of footprint; other ... ?

Lion: size; mane or not; colour of nose; scars; spotted coats or not; size of skull; other ... ?

Leopard: size of cat; weight of cat; length of cat; size of skull; other .... ?

Just some ideas. I do not know the answers myself but have some thoughts. Looking to learn from some of the experts. What are your thoughts?

My opinion in a pinch:

1- Buffalo: Most important charateristic is a hard boss irrespective of spread, drop,etc which are just personal preferences of the hunter.

2- Lion: Must be old (Over 6)and preferrably past bereeding. Mane or not is a personal preference.

3- Elephant: Again, should be over 45 - 50 years old and either at the end of its 5th set of molars or on the 6th and last set. The bigger the ivory in terms of length, weight and mass the better.

4- Leopard: IMO, size! This varies a lot from area to area and even within the same geographical area. AND, it needs to have balls

On all of the above, there is one uniform criteria - age.

A trophy is in the eyes of the beholder, now record book requirements is another story. How many times have posters talked about the quality of the hunt determining the quality of the trophy.

Yes and ...no!

I once shot a young impala buck for camp meat with my 22. The whole stalk and final brain shot in the depression between the ear and the eye at 30 odd yards was pefect. It was one of the first animals I ever shot other than dik dik. The horns were maybe 14 inches. Was it a trophy? No.

Whenever I shot a soft bossed buffalo, again for staff rations, I never once considered it a trophy despite some of the hunts for the animal being memorable. JMO

If I may interject a few experiences from non-African, non-dangerous game species:

As a general rule I prefer age over size. From that viewpoint I have one real trophy, a geriatric roe buck shot in Poland, with teeth worn smooth.

I shot a wolf that at that time ranked number 10 in the SCI book. Judging from the teeth the wolf was at most 2 years old. Actually, if the wear on wolves' teeth is the same as on dogs, they indicated that he was in his second year, and he was shot in June... so just over a year (???) It has a special place in my house, since it was the first animal I shot after moving to Canada, a species that is high on the wish list of many, and one that was just friggin' big! And I stalked to within 30 yards! So circumstances of the hunt play a role as well.

Geographics come into play. That roe buck wasn't a monster buck in size, but better than average, to pretty good FOR THE REGION. I guess some areas just don't hold 45" buff, 80 lbs ele, or what have you.

The other day I came across a bighorn ram that was 13 years old (!). He barely made legal, since he was tight curled. He probably wouldn't make any record book, because he wasn't very massive. Would he be a trophy?! Darn right he would be!!

So here's an attempt at a definition:
An animal constitutes a trophy when it is mature, at or past his peak, representative of the species and area, and shot under fair chase conditions.

How's that?

Frans

buffalo: Hard boss, and the buffalo is a dagga boy, out of the breeding pool. No buff from herds.

OK what I was looking for was what characteristics define age or occur with older animals.

eg Lion - black nose not pink? Coat which doesn't have faint spots?

etc

Thanks.

Normaly, an animal is considered mature when it reaches breeding age. What most of us consider a true trophy is an animal that is at or near old age. Females tend to breed until the day they die but males in most species are often unable to breed when they can no longer defend a herd or a territory. For me personaly I don't care whether the bull is a dagga boy or a herd bull as long as the bosses are fully formed and hardened. But to another, a younger bull may be satisfactory and I have no problem with that. On this forum many feel that if a hunter shoots a soft boss bull then that will reduce the number of big old hard bossed bulls in the population. It is true that if you kill a young bull it will never become a an old hard bossed bull. What is most important though in maintaing a good number of hard bossed old bulls is the total mortality and specificaly the quota level. Heaily harvested populations will heve few old bulls.

Behavior studies have shown that mature buff often leave the herd when their body condition deteriorates from competing wth other males. They then become dagga boys for awhile until their body condition improves enough that they can rejoin the herd and compete successfully with other males. So what is a dagga boy one day may be a herd bull the next day.

With elephant any bull that is over roughly 20-30 years of age may be a breeding bull. Often they have only 25 to 30 lbs of ivory if the tusks are not broken. I am sure Ganyana can tie this down better then I have. Personaly, I like to hunt old big bodied bulls. The bigger the body the more satisfaction for me.

465H&H