Last week I did a hunt in Mauritania for Warthogs.
Mauritania lies between Senegal and Western Sahara, North Africa.
Was the first time I been to any African Country, sure was different.
Interesting place: Where Arabia meets Africa, and where the Sahara Desert meets the swamps and river delta of the Senegal River:




I arrived fist to Nouakchott (Pronounced a bit lik "Knock-shop")
..ahhhh Nouakchott (Knock-Shop) good place. Cracked me up.....
Shambolic desert city, mainly slums strewn in car wrecks and litter. Plenty livestock on the dirt roads, busy as. Flew in with Mauritania Airways, via Madrid and Casa Blanca. The other route is from Paris with Air France. (Better)


http://i70.photobucket.com/alb...itaniaFeb2010003.jpg
Typical "Knock-shop" city road, donkey arsed up.

Won't bore you with details. Cos I know I would rather look at pictures than read text....
Anyway got through all that.
And headed for the huntin area. Plenty of interestin stuff along the way, but basically Desert for 4 hours and frequent stops by police to check out my passport and see what a kiwi looks like.





Hunting Camp was near the Senegal River. Bout the only placein the country that has plentiful water. Lots of crops, stock and quite damp. Yet within 1 mile it is barren desert.

http://i70.photobucket.com/alb...itaniaFeb2010112.jpg

Camp well organised. Main facilty building was solid concrete, and had all basics. Accomodation was in permanent tents. These had bathrooms, toilet, electricity. Real Good.




Inside they looked like this:

Try that again:



Donkey arsing up.......

Big portion of ransport was on Donkey carts or Camels.

People was colourful. A mixture of race and cultures. Muslim country.
They had quite a bit of strife there.

Bit of info if you can be bothered reading it:

Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA seized power in a coup in 1984 and ruled Mauritania with a heavy hand for more than two decades. A series of presidential elections that he held were widely seen as flawed. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed President TAYA and ushered in a military council that oversaw a transition to democratic rule. Independent candidate Sidi Ould Cheikh ABDALLAHI was inaugurated in April 2007 as Mauritania's first freely and fairly elected president. His term ended prematurely in August 2008 when a military junta led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel AZIZ deposed him and ushered in a military council government. AZIZ was subsequently elected president in August 2009. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions among its black population (Afro-Mauritanians) and White and Black Moor (Arab-Berber) communities, and is having to confront a growing terrorism threat by al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Mahgreb.

Warthogs can live up to 15 years.
The typical gestation period is 5 or 6 months and the litter size is 2 to 8 piglets, although 2 to 4 is more typical.
Piglets are weaned at 3 or 4 months of age, reaching sexual maturity at 18 to 24 months. Females may give birth twice a year.

i.e. Breed like Fk....

So no shortage and no need to feel bad about thinning them out a little.

A grouping of warthogs is called a sounder. Warthogs live in family groups of a female and her young. Sometimes two families, often of related females, will join together. Males normally live by themselves, only joining the groups to mate.

The warthog is mainly a grazer and has adapted an interesting practice of kneeling on its calloused, hairy, padded knees to eat short grass. Using its snout and tusks, it also digs for bulbs, tubers and roots during the dry season. They may eat earthworms and other small invertebrates during the wet season.
I also saw them feeding on dead carcasses of donkes and goats.

HUNTIN' EM:

Where I hunted it is the only hunting concession in Mauritania.
About the only species you can hunt there is Warthogs. Also the occasional Jackel.
Not a lot of other wildlife to be hunted. It's all been wiped out by encroaching domestic stock and periods of strife where anything edible was eaten.
Fortunate for Warthogs, Muslim's don't eat them.
The Concession area was about 84,000 hectares (200,000 acres) mainly agricultural land. Heavily populated and plenty of livestock: Camels, Donkeys, Goats, Cattle, Sheep, Horses. All running feral, but I guess owned by someone.
Lots of locals wandering about inthe hunting area, so had to be careful when shootin'

Two main hunting methods:

1/. "Spot and Stalk" This is what I enjoyed most. Out in the fields in early morning and late afternoon. I was surprised how good the eyesight was on the pigs. Most pigs I've hunted have poor eyesight. Warthogs can see you from over a mile away, and are off with their tails in the air. So had to use plenty cover.

2/. "Batida" (Driven Hunt) Here I was positioned in an opening/shooting lane and The scrub was beaten by peole and vehicles. The pigs come barreling past in small mobs, you have to do an instantaneous trophy assessment and whack the animal, all in about 2 seconds.
I'm not real good at running shots, but got surprisingly good. Shots were 25-300 yards and always standing "Off-hand"
I was using a camp gun. Remington 770 in 300 Win Mag. 180 gr Winchester powerpoints.
Very effective.
The pigs are solid 100-200 pounds. (Some are bigger, but I didn't see any huge ones.)
300 win mag was perfect.
Not too many exits, so tough little buggers.


My first pig was "Batida Style"
I'd never seen a Warthog before in my life, so just went for the one with biggest tusks, as they barrelled past at 80 yards. Managed to pull off a perfect double lung shot. Was quite impressed with myself, the locals happy that I could shoot.
It was a female:



Females only got 2 Warts on their face. Males got 4.

Ugly buggers.....bit like ya "Mother-in-law"....


My next shot not so flash. Hit too far back, and spent over an hour tracking the wounded animal. Finally got him:



After that I got stuck in. Got 8 that morning:

Manged a double...Bang...Bang...





Some decent ones there, but quite a few females. (They have good tusks too.)

Anyway got the volume thing out of my brain and from then on just went 'Spot an Stalk" looking for big ones.

Got around in Toyota Hilux's. Each hunter had his own truck, with driver, beater and guide.



Big female I shot among the Bullrushes logside the river:



Crossing the river on a boat made outta plastic drums....
Not too stable, and nasty lookin water. Crocs???? Didn't see any.



GUIDE/TRACKER: "C-D" He was good:
Couple words english, quite a bit of spanish, fluent french. We got by and had lotsa fun.

Bigget one I got:

COUPLE MORE PIC's TO FINISH UP

I do believe that was the absolute, most comprehensive hunting report I have ever read -- hands down! Excellent work -- a pleasure to read. Congratulations!

Awesome pics guys and writeup


Thanks for sharing and congrats!!

You must be one of only a handful that have hunted that country. Great Pix.

The Berbers are a handsome seople,

Wow! a wonderful write up. Stunning pictures. It makes want to save my pennies to make the trip. A question please: The tusks of the warthogs had tape of different color on them, was this a way of marking each hunter's bag or a form of permit tag as we are used to in the states? Again, thanks for you narritive and photos. God Bless.
Jon In Tucson

Great shots and nice report. I, for one, enjoy people's words and descriptions as much if not more than the pics, so no worries there at all. Bloody well done all around, looks like. Agree that there are some handsome people out there; that one little girl around the pile of clothes is going to be an absolute bombshell some day!

Thanks for the write-up.....good stuff, looks like a blast(literally and figuratively)!

What a contrast when you see certain African ethnicities that are quite attractive set in a squalid backdrop.

That's more than a hunt. It's an adventure. Impressive, but I would think more than twice about it before I went there. It looks somewhat frightening to me. It's a place that brings mental images of people (infidels) tied to posts with burning tires around their necks. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I think it's the kind of place to end up with the only way to identify your remains is DNA testing.

I certainly enjoyed the pictures and write-up. It's a great thing to do, for those up to it. There's good, beauty, and interesting things to do and see almost everywhere, especially in a strange and distant land.

One of my dream hunts is a hog/pig hunt adventure for the bush pig, or the red river hog. All I want is one of each.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushpig

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Hog

KB

That was fantastic! Truly a "foreign" experience. I like that.

Oh, and my favorite quote:

quote:

Fortunate for Warthogs, Muslim's don't eat them.

Yeah, have to agree with all of the above. Absolutly brilliant!

great report.how did you find about it and arrange it? got to admit, it's the first time i ever saw a tent with a wooden door!

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

Thanks for a very interesting glimpse at a part of Africa we seldom see.

Curious why this was moved from the African Hunting Reports section though.

What an adventure. Great report. How did you get onto this hunt? Did you use an outfitter or what?

I damn sure don't understand why it was moved, you can't get any more African Hunting than this. Again, congrats and thanks for the write up.

This a truly stunning report! I am somewhat jealous right now. I have been to Africa twice, and would truly love to repeat your adventure. The close up of the mans face is truly a great photo-art quality in my humble opinion. Well done my friend. Cheers, Luke

Fantastic report and looks like you had great fun.It is the first time I read anyone having gone to hunt there.Your words about the only reason those Wart Hogs are surviving is due to the cultural practices of the natives is a sad testimony to state of wildlife conservation there.Someone is very enterprising there to come up with the idea of sport hunting. Hopefully, with hunters like you visiting there,they may find an incentive in keeping them alive. Thanks for a great post.

Best-
Locksley,R

Some buddies of mine have been back there this week, they shot 130 for the week including this fantastic female.



Curious why this was moved from the African Hunting Reports section though.

???
This was not moved and never was posted in the African Hunting Reports...

I do beleive this Forum is labelled:
Hogs, WARTHOGS,Wild Boars,Javelinas Hunting.



For those interested in hunting there:
There is only one concession and one Outfitter:

Sahel Safaris.

I was impressed how well organised the whole set-up was.

I went alone, but would be great fun with a group of 4-6 friends.

Thank you for sharing the story of your trip. Fantastic!

Love to go back. Really was a fun adventure and value for money.

This is one of the best hunt reports I have read in a while! Thanks for sharing you experience!!

Good Hunting!

Bob

....am curious.......were they people to eat the meat from these several warthogs?

What an interesting place ,great for photos.
Shame that terrorists are so anxious to destroy. The DAKAR Rally was moved to South America after threats from terrs.
I assume they eat the pork . If so how do they prepare it ?

Great pictures and report! Thanks for sharing!

The meat was utilized, but by whom, I'm not sure. They went to quite a lot of effort to dress and butcher the meat, so must be an outlet somewhere....

Awesome write up, thanks.

Really enjoyed the pics and info lines. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of this area.
Only other comment is that your largest hog reminds me of a rap singer.

very intersting place to hunt ,i would love more info about aoutfitter PHs etc .

quote:

Originally posted by juanpozzi:
very intersting place to hunt ,i would love more info about aoutfitter PHs etc .

Juan:

Por su informacion y en espanol.....Sahel Safaris

Thanks for a great report and photos.

Yes, yes, yes, damm fine account of your trip!! Thank you so very much for the time you spent putting that post together!! Great pics, nice to hear a little of the local history, and some fine shooting as well! Thank you again sir!!

I can't read the spanish on their website, what were the approximate prices/bag limits/ length of hunt for a trip like yours. It looks VERY interesting.

E-mail Rafael from Sahal. He speaks perfect english, and is a very organised operator. Prices are very reasonable. About 3.000 euro as base price and extra for more pigs. This is a quality operation in avery unique location.

Regular flights to Noakchot from Casa Blanca. Primary language is french...