Does anyone have any current info on Hunting in Liberia, or nearby countries.

I have no idea, but just curious: what is there to hunt?

Brett

A red river hog????

Brett

Not much and probably little if any quota. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...f_mammals_of_Liberia

I love those red river hogs though

I don't think the place is safe.

I don't have any current information, but there was a time when collectors flocked there especially to hunt several types of duikers not available elsewhere. A few who went there early on were able to take pygmy hippos, also. Firearms couldn't be brought into Liberia, so an American expatriate, who apparently was quite a character, provided a shotgun, shells and a local guide. Much of the hunting was done at night by "snorting" to call in the animals.

Bill Quimby

Yes, I remember when there was a brief window and brave and bold individuals were going to Liberia to hunt. They took some pretty neat stuff, like previously mentioned, red forest hogs, all kinds of duikers that you can not get any where else, golden cats, pangolin. However, it was a very dangerous place, there is a good chapter about hunting in Liberia in Bodington's African Hunter II.

quote:

I love those red river hogs though

Steve, I would neve have guessed!!!

Those things look like they would be fun from the bit of research I've managed to do. DO they get much of a tooth or are they "less is more" in the dentistry department?

FB

No mate, not really much in the tooth dept, but very desireable to the pig hunters........ and although I'm not particularly a pig man, I just love 'em.

Hello

Bill is right; you could not import a firearm into Liberia. All hunting was done with shotguns. Although there were rumored to be Bongo, no one shot a Bongo.
The person arranging these hunts was, like Bill said an interesting guy by the name of Tom Banks, who did not pay the people on the ground and by the time I decided to go, the whole program collapsed.
This was followed by the civil war, so no hunts have taken place by outsiders since 2000.

The two sought after small antelopes were the Zebra Duiker and the Chevrotain, besides the Red river hog.


Zebra Duiker



Chevrotain


Regards
Aziz

Aziz,

I heard a rumor that there is still huntable numbers of Jentink's Duiker in Liberia. Have you heard anything about that? I would love to hunt Liberia for one of those.

SG

I talked to the guy who was booking hunts to Liberia a few years ago at one of the conventions, it seemed to be falling apart at that time, pretty much a 4th world country, not the place to take the little lady and the kids, probably better to stick with Disney World. Run the gauntlet just to get out of the country with your life. However---if you could pull it off, I am sure your trophy room would be the envy of the neighborhood! Must admit I considered it.

Hello SG

I emailed a guy in Liberia, who worked with Tom Banks during 1999 through 2000 but got no reply.

As far as I know no one who went in 1999 through 2000 got a Jentink's Duiker. I would love to hunt the Jentink's and Zebra Duikers.


Jentink's duiker

Regards
Aziz

Amazing and very beautiful small antelope/duikers! Yes, I too would love to hunt all three! Aziz: Thanks for the pics and info.

Liberia must have attracted its share of expatriates with interesting personalities. In my earlier post, I was talking about a fellow named Harry Gilmore, who outfitted there in the 1970s through about 1988. The SCI Record Book of Trophy Animals shows Tom Banks, whom others have mentioned, operated in the mid-1990s until the year 2000, the last year for an entry from that country.

My books “Wind In My Face” with Hubert Thummler and “Around The World And Then Some” with David Hanlin discuss their hunts with Banks. “McElroy Hunts the Antelope of Africa and Antlered Game of the World,” which I wrote for SCI’s founder, includes his hunt with Gilmore.

Here are the Liberian species that have entries in the SCI record book.

African golden cat
Pygmy hippo
Dwarf forest buffalo
Western bongo
Forest sitatunga
Harnessed bushbuck
Royal antelope
Water chevrotain
Southern Grant gazelle
Bay duiker
Black duiker
Jentink duiker
Ogilby duiker
Maxwell duiker
Zebra duiker
Red river hog

There are many other species that occur in Liberia, including elephant, lion, leopard, bushbuck, etc., but SCI members apparently did not hunt them when they went there, or at least they did not submit entries for them.

The red river hog apparently has not been hunted much by Americans, but I suppose it would be a common trophy for the French who hunted West Africa regularly.

The SCI record book lists only 68 red river hog entries from the C.A.R., Sudan, Cameroon and Liberia. Most are from Sudan, followed by Cameroon. Only one was taken in Liberia.

Senegal is one of the places the red river hog is found (although there are no entries from there). It would make an interesting excursion to get off in Dakar on the way to Johannesburg and spend a few nights hunting them. Does anyone know someone there?

The text below is from the SCI record book and was written by Jack Schwabland.

RED RIVER HOG (Potamochoerus porcus)

Generic name is from the Greek potamos (river) and khoiros (pig). Porcus is Latin for pig or hog.

In previous editions, the red river hog was combined with the bushpig as one species; however, Grubb has recently recognized each as a separate species, citing their morphological differences and the lack of evidence that they hybridize, and this has been generally accepted.

DESCRIPTION Shoulder height 25-30 inches (63-76 cm). Weight 120-180 lbs (54-81 kg).

The red river hog is the smallest African pig, averaging slightly smaller than the bushpig, and is the most brightly colored of all the world's wild pigs. Coat is a bright brownish orange, with a narrow white dorsal crest, darker legs and bold black-and-white facial markings. Forehead and mask are black, there are white eye rings, white whiskers along the jaw, and the long, pointed ears have white margins and end in long, white tassels. Long, bristly hairs grow on most of the face and along the flanks, but the coat is short and dense on the forehead and the rest of the body, giving the animal a smooth, trim look that is very different from the shaggy, crested appearance of the bushpig. The long, thin tail ends in a black tuft. The head is elongated and ends in a flattened snout. Males have small, wart-like skin growths on the sides of the face. The canines form small short tusks (the lowers are larger) that wear against each other, honing sharp edges. Females have three pairs of teats. Juveniles are a dark reddish brown with pale yellow horizontal stripes.

BEHAVIOR A social animal, living in groups of 4-10, sometimes up to 20. Mainly nocturnal, resting during the day. Omnivorous, feeding mainly on roots, bulbs, fruits and berries, occasionally on frogs, snakes, birds and eggs. Forages by digging ("rooting") with the muzzle, tusks and front feet. Fond of crops, can cause great damage to farmland. Wanders over a large area in search of food. A good swimmer. Three to six young are born after five months gestation.

HABITAT Rain forest, secondary forest, and gallery forest where there is thick cover. Prefers moist areas with soft ground and permanent water.

DISTRIBUTION The equatorial rainforest belt from Senegal in the west to the Central African Republic and Congo (K) in the east, and southward through Congo (K) as far as the Kasai River and the savanna zone of Shaba Province. Also occurs marginally in the forest zone of southwestern Sudan along its borders with the C.A.R. and Congo (K).

TAXONOMIC NOTES Several subspecies were listed at one time, but are no longer considered valid.

Bill Quimby

I was in Monrovia once. No desire to ever see it again. 3rd world sh*thole is a generous description. Some interesting critters there though, looks like.

quote:

was in Monrovia once. No desire to ever see it again. 3rd world sh*thole is a generous description. Some interesting critters there though, looks like.

I too have been there once and Kamo is being overly generous with his description!

In 2005, I spent 104 days onboard the USS Nashville LPD-13, attached to the Iwo Jima Strike Group, sailing 3.5 miles off the coast of Liberia. We were carrying the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and about 18 members of the U.S. Navy SEALs. Our mission was to stand by during the civil war in which Charles Taylor was ousted from power. We were specifically tasked with being ready to put troops ashore to protect the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia if it got attacked.

The thing I remember most about Liberia was the bodies floating in the ocean. I never kept a count, but I'd guess I saw somewhere between 80-100 total. And I also saw a lot of the biggest and fattest hammerhead sharks I've ever seen anywhere, some of them were well over 15 feet long. You could sit on the ship's upper weatherdecks and see the muzzle flashes of gunfire every night through the ship mounted binoculars, AKA "big-eyes".

One night, we sent about 12 SEALs ashore on a covert mission to recon the beaches and map out the most direct route to the embassy. Due to a lack of current navigational charts and street maps, the power to be decided they needed real time intel. So, off went the SEALs, swimming ashore. After they returned, hours later, I talked to a Chief Petty Officer SEAL in the chief's mess on Nashville. He told me that there were hundreds of human corpses lying on the beach and floating in the surf. He guessed in the little stretch of sand he saw that there were over 500.

I was glad to finally say goodbye to that stretch of ocean. Nasty place. In my opinion, anyone going there either needs to have their head examined or has a death wish.