Tanzania Adventures Inc & Tanzania Wildlife Company Ltd.
2006 Hunting Report & Newsletter
In this day and age of hunting, there are more choices in African safari outfitters than there are animal species to hunt in the whole of Africa! The most important decision a hunter has to make is not in the choice of trophy to shoot, but rather in the selection of the hunt provider. You must place your trust, hard-earned money, and most importantly your safari dreams in the hands of someone else.
We proudly hold the marketing rights for Tanzania Wildlife Company Ltd, our premier Tanzania safari outfitter. Tanzania Wildlife Company (TWC) owns five outstanding concessions throughout Tanzania. From hunting the East African plains game of Maasailand in our Lake Natron South GCA concession, to the trophy buffalo and cats in the Rungwa Ikili Game Reserve of central Tanzania, and full-bag hunts in any of our three blocks within the famous Selous Game Reserve, TWC tailors each safari to the individual specifications of our clients.
With a firm belief that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression, we are committed to providing you with not only the finest in African safari adventures, but also a terrific overall experience. Our professional hunters, camp managers, staff and trackers are highly skilled and hand-picked from the best that Africa has to offer.
Every aspect and detail of your safari is important to us, from your first inquiry to the delivery of your trophies. If what thrills you is spending your days in true wilderness in the pursuit of high quality game, with your evenings being catered to in the luxurious comfort of a first class camp, we invite you to join us for the safari experience of a lifetime!
I invite you to read on for the 2006 year-end report from TWC Managing Director, Leon Lamprecht. Thank you for your interest in Tanzania Adventures and Tanzania Wildlife Company. We look forward to hunting with you in the near future!
Sincerely,
Amy Martin, Marketing Manager, Tanzania Adventures Inc.
Tanzania Wildlife Corporation (TAWICO) was established by the Tanzanian Government to control all wildlife utilization in Tanzania. After the fall of communism and various subsequent changes around the world, the Tanzanian Government decided to privatize some of its parental organizations. In1999, TAWICO was privatized and the management and operation was taken over by a Tanzanian hunting company. By 2005 a decision was made by the owner of TAWICO to look an investor who had experience in the safari business to take over the management of the company. At that time, the equipment was in a bad state, and the areas had been abused. As these areas were known to be some of the very best in Tanzania, the owner felt that with proper management these concessions would offer its hunting clients some fantastic experiences. Thanks to a significant financial commitment from the new management of Tanzania Wildlife Company, and hard work on everyone’s part, we have arrived at the end of our first year of operation, and what a successful year it has been!
Our transaction with the previous operators was only closed in January of 2006 at the Safari Cub International Convention in Reno, leaving precious little time to organize for the upcoming hunting season. We were very conservative in our marketing for the 2006 season. The Tanzanian authorities require 40% of hunting quota to be utilized in order for a company to retain its hunting concessions. With this in mind we booked the bare minimum and did not sell any lion or elephant-specific hunts. Our goal this first year was to do a proper assessment of the newly obtained concessions, and set the precedent for our management strategies.
We donated all of the old equipment inherited with the company to our anti-poaching operations and furnished the whole operation with brand new state-of-the-art equipment, camp materials, and even a new fleet of safari and transport vehicles. Most of the ideas implemented this year came from experience in the industry or were borrowed ideas from our friends, as well as, our competitors in the trade. There is no reason to reinvent the, but certainly nothing wrong with bettering it!
Pleasant was our surprise at the quality of trophies taken during our 2006 season! One of our best investments this year was in the Cuddeback automatic trail cameras. We baited cats where possible and as soon as we had a cat on bait we would set up a camera to gather data on individual animals in terms of both their size and age. This data will be invaluable, over the years, in helping us monitor the population and quality of the cats in each of our concessions. You can see from the Cuddeback photos that there are some nice animals on the prowl in these areas!
Conditions made hunting more difficult this year than usual. The rains in the Selous Game Reserve were very late, and with the abundance of water the buffalo and elephant movement into the areas were almost non-existent. The quality of the buffalo taken, however, exceeded our expectations for the Selous. We had to retrain our gun bearers to hunt the buffalo by tracking, as this was not a common practice in the past management regime. We mainly tracked the old bachelor “dugga boys” with very good success. The average buffalo size for the Selous was 37 1/2 inches, with several bulls exceeding the forty inch mark! Client, Tom Bulloch from Colorado and PH Pete Barnard received top honors by taking a magnificent buffalo of 42”, while both Cody Idol and Barron Brittingham reached the coveted forty inch mark with their Selous bulls.
Of particular interest in the Selous camps was the excitement that was had by several of our clients this year with Hippo. Cody Idol was fortunate in taking a monster bull with tusks that should score in the top twenty in the all time records book. The excitement he experienced in the taking of his bull is something I’m sure he will never forget. Similarly, client Brad Severs from Illinois took a very large bull that was finally stopped less than ten yards from he and his PH, John Greeff. Both of them had wild tales to tell that evening when they returned to camp, and there stories were backed up by the excellent video shot by camp manager, Craig Middleton. This video will be featured in an upcoming episode of “Jack Brittingham’s World of Hunting Adventure.”
Some of the most spectacular footage was shot by Camerawoman Amy Martin, as she filmed Jack Brittingham’s archery hippo. After Jack sent an arrow into the bull’s heart, the bull returned to the river where he was attacked by the dominant bull in the area. This unbelievable footage has to be seen to be believed!
Also of interest in the Selous concessions is the large population of crocodiles that were seen this season in both the Luwego and Ulanga Rivers. While only one crocodile was taken this year, many were seen that would approach the fourteen foot mark. One client spent more than ten days hunting these huge reptiles and had several opportunities at crocs in the fourteen foot range, but elected to hold out for a fifteen footer. It is interesting to note when contemplating a hunt for either hippo or croc that these two animals account for more human deaths in Africa each year than any other species!
In the Ikili area of the Rungwa Game Reserve it was exceptionally dry this year. This concession has been known to produce very good buffalo and lion in the past. It was in this area that well known American hunter, Jack Brittingham of “Jack Brittingham’s World of Hunting Adventure,” TV show and video fame took his exceptional lion with bow and arrow. Jack also took a beautiful buffalo of 41 inches, and a kudu that measured 53 inches. While these two animals were not taken with archery equipment, they are fantastic trophies just the same.
The buffalo in the area show good potential with lots of bulls spotted of excellent quality. The best buffalo trophy of the year in Rungwa went to PH, Peter Barnard and client Diana Rupp who ended up taking a 45” buffalo in this area in September. Other clients ended up with some terrific leopard, plains game and dugga boys.
Thanks to an annual wet season migration the Lake Natron South GCA in Northern Tanzania has always produced some great trophies. Clients Jack Brittingham and Neil Summers were able to collect some of the more difficult to get East African species with bow-and-arrow. Gibb Lewis from Texas and PH Alistair James took a 46” buffalo and an exceptional bushbuck during their adventure hunt on Kitumbeine Mountain. On a separate safari client Tom Waller with PH John Greeff took a Lesser Kudu of 32 inches, as well as a 20 inch Maasai bushbuck!
In 2007 we will be able to hunt more quota than this past year thanks to the good efforts from our area managers in opening many new roads into previously unhunted areas. The population of old male animals past their breeding prime is on the increase and hopefully within the next 4 years we will be able to reach the full hunting potential of our concessions!
The Tanzanian government has authorized private hunting companies to conduct photographic safaris in their areas during the off-season. Our Lake Natron South concession is well suited for such activity and we have just completed a beautiful camp situated at the foot of Mount Kitumbeine, overlooking the plains and escarpment of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley. This camp provides a spectacular view of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai’s “Mountain of God” and is the only active volcano in East Africa. This camp will also offer guests the opportunity of experiencing the annual wet season migration of water dependant plains game species that moves through this area.
As conservation is our primary goal, we assisted in various community and area conservation and development projects this past year and will continue doing so in the future. With the drought in some areas and human population expansion in others, poaching is becoming a problem in most African countries. Through community projects and education of the local populous as to the importance of conserving both the wildlife and its habitat, we hope to combat these challenges. In some areas it is necessary to have full-time anti-poaching teams. We have employed area managers in all our areas to coordinate with the local authorities to make this possible. We have added a conservation fee to the Government Trophy fee, and this money is being put to good use in the communities surrounding our concessions. We are also in the process of setting up a foundation where clients and organizations can donate money and get tax benefits from this donation to enable us to do a better job of protecting the future of these great areas.
I would like to thank all our clients, our staff and our new management team who have made this past year the success that it turned out to be. We are looking forward to a new year and the successes and many happy clients that it will bring.
Asante Sana,
Leon Lamprecht
Managing Director
Tanzania Wildlife Company
Arusha, Tanzania
For more information about our safari adventures, please contact us.
609-B East Clinton Ave.
Athens, TX. 75751
Phone: 903-677-2155
Fax: 903-677-2211
Cell: 509-679-3456
Email: amym@tanzaniaquest.com