Hunter Takes Hundred Pound Elephant Trophy In Zimbabwe

Surprising news from Zimbabwe! On March 31, a Spanish hunter shot a 100-pound elephant while hunting with PH Nixon Dzingai of SSG Safaris (info@ssgsafaris.com) in a communal area bordering Gonarezhou National Park. I first learned of the development from subscriber and booking agent George Gehrman of Tracking Africa (307-754-9181; www.TrackingAA.com). Subscriber Jack Sissoyev forwarded a photo he had received (see our online Trophy Gallery), while Naison Makanasi at SSG Safaris confirmed that the tusks had been weighed at 101 pounds at the Mabalauta Station in Gonarezhou National Park and officially registered at the Masvingo National Parks office. Dzingai was still in the field with clients and not available for interview at press time. How did Zimbabwe produce this monster? Gonarezhou National Park lies on the border of southeastern Zimbabwe and is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also includes South Africa's Kruger National Park and Mozambique's Gaza National Park. SSG Safaris hunts the Malapati safari area adjacent to the southern end of Gonarezhou. The Mwenezi River forms the boundary with the park and Malapati. This is a hunting concession of more than 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares).

We have eight hunt reports on file on Malapati by subscribers who have hunted there with Nixon Dzingai. The reports, going back to 1999, unanimously give Dzingai excellent marks as a PH and rate the concession highly for elephant hunting, with jumbo seen and taken from 30- to 70-plus pounds. During this time table, the concession was hunted by several safari operators, all of whom used Dzingai as a PH. He eventually started SSG Safaris and took over Malapati several years ago.

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