"First, that report that hunting is closed in Burkina Faso is completely false. On the contrary, hunting there is very much alive, though the season, as this is written, is closed. Burkina has a rather brief season of a few months from mid-winter to late March. This may be modified somewhat in the future. Second, the game situation in Burkina runs from quite good to dismal, depending on where you are.
All the hunting areas I checked out on my recent safari held good numbers of animals. In fact, my companion on my latest safari to Burkina, Luis La Perla of Passport to Adventure, and I had no trouble collecting the game we were after. Roan are plentiful in some areas and La Perla collected a fine specimen without difficulty. I took a very nice Nagor reedbuck or Nigerian Bohor reedbuck - I couldn't be sure which one it was - and was very happy. We saw good numbers of lion, but were not licensed for these animals. Lions here, incidentally, tend to be big-bodied but maneless.
I should note here that the safari client who bid on the auction hunts at the last SCI convention was in Burkina the same time I was. He collected some game, but was treated with indifference by the safari operators. As a result, he returned unhappy. He has been guaranteed a return make-up safari, however, including the chance to take a lion. This is a good gesture on the part of the operators in Burkina and hopefully shows that their intentions are good.
Third, at this point, all of Burkina's safari operators are native people and it is........(continued)
