One Heck Of A Ride

103 South Africa horns, yellow legs and long hair on its throat and belly), then to Teafontein for a bontebok (a close cousin of the blesbok), Perdehoek for a black wildebeest (a white-tailed gnu), and Hepburn for a Vaal rhebok (a 60-pound antelope with long, straight horns, a longish neck and long, narrow ears). The most challenging hunt on this trip was for free-ranging Vaal rhebok. Frank and I and a tracker hunted by working our way around a mountain and stopping often to glass its canyons and hillsides. When we found the ram I eventually shot, it was impossible to get closer than what I estimated to be 550 to 650 yards (we didn’t have rangefinders in those days). Whatever it was, it was farther than I am comfortable shooting but I Author with his common nyala, one of the most handsome of South Africa’s antelopes. Bontebok have been brought back from the brink of extinction by hunters and South Africa’s game farmers managed to kill it. The Eastern Cape is known for its large population of Cape kudu, and although we saw several bulls Frank said were trophies, I didn’t shoot one on this trip. I enjoyed hunting with Frank Bowker and I shot a lot of game. The properties we hunted were so large it was hard to realize they were game ranches. There is no doubt that the rescue of the once- endangered southern white rhinoceros from the edge of extinction is South Africa’s flagship wildlife conservation effort, or that the species was saved because of the innovative thinking of a man who believed private ownership and trophy hunting would be its salvation. In 1900, the southern white rhino was one of the world’s most endangered animals. Only fifty remained in the wild and all of them were in Zululand’s Umfolozi Game Reserve. Under his direction, the world population grew from fewer than 300 in 1952 to 600 in 1960 to more than 20,000 today, and their numbers continue to climb despite a spate of poaching in recent years. The man was Dr. Ian Player (the former Chief Conservator of the Natal Parks Board and the older brother of professional golfer Gary Player). Under Dr. Player’s direction, a program called Operation Rhino moved surplus rhinos from Umfolozi to parks across South Africa to ensure that a single calamity would not threaten the world’s entire remaining population. He also won approval of a recovery plan that included selling southern white rhinos to private landowners and allowing regulated and sustainable hunting. In Africa, there are axioms that say, “it stays only if it pays” and “wildlife must sing for its supper.” Nearly 80% of South Africa’s land is privately owned, and Ian Player’s restoration program included making it profitable for landowners to breed and grow rhinos on their properties by selling surplus individuals to