PH John Greef was mauled by a leopard in Tanzania last month. He was following up a wounded cat when the attack occurred. Sketchy details and lots of rumors were still being bantered about on the hunting forums as I wrote this, but I was able to confirm that Greef was guiding a client in Raoul Ramoni’s area with his son, Dusty. Greef was bitten in the face and suffered a broken jaw and punctured eye. His son was injured as well, and I’m told, lost a couple of toes when he was shot in the foot. As we went to print in late July I was awaiting details from Greef’s family and US booking agent Wes Hixon, who traveled to Africa to support them. By the time you read this, I should have gotten first-hand reports and an update on Greef’s condition, including information on how the rest of his clients will be handled this season. E-mail Extra (EME) subscribers will have received the report in an e-mail news bulletin. Other subscribers will be able to read it on the homepage of our web site, where we post bulletins 24 hours after delivering them directly to EME subscribers.
Subscriber Larry Shores is working with another hunter, Larry Burgin, to help raise funds for Greef’s medical expenses. Interested hunters can contact Burgin by e-mail at Larry.Burgin @arvinmeritor.com....
Also causing a huge stir on the hunting forums and with anti-hunting groups was the recent shooting of a collared elephant in Zimbabwe. You’ve probably heard about the Musango elephant by now, a bull that was supposedly rather tame and accustomed to wildlife viewing tourists. According to Sally Bown at the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe (www.soaz.net), the elephant had been collared by the Wild Horizon Trust. “Animals are collared for scientific research. If they become too familiar with humans they can lose their natural fear instinct. Most scientists collar animals then track them in their normal way of life,” Bown wrote The Hunting Report in an e-mail.
This elephant was hunted and shot by a safari operator and his client. Was that illegal or unethical? “It is not illegal to shoot a collared animal in a designated hunting area in Zimbabwe,” Bown says. “Often you cannot see the collar, especially on lions, and, from some angles, on elephant. SOAZ considers it unethical and unacceptable to deliberately shoot a collared animal. However, it is accepted that the collars can often not be seen and mistakes do happen in the heat of the hunt. The Association has recommended that in the future those responsible for collaring animals advise the operators of nearby hunting areas so they are aware of their presence. No one actually knew this elephant was there in this incident….”
