One Heck Of A Ride

104 South Africa hunters. Among the many things he had to accomplish was to get CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the wildlife agencies of other countries to approve the international shipment of southern white rhino trophies taken legally in SouthAfrica. He was fortunate in that it was another era. He might not have succeeded if he attempted this today. Dr. Player died in 2014without seeing the final stage of his wildlife restoration plan implemented. He believed that allowing governments to flood the world market with the horns of rhinos that died naturally or were seized from poachers would eliminate poaching and illegal trade, and raise funds for conservation. The White Rhino Of Mkuze I returned to South Africa in August 1993 to hunt a southern white rhino, the fourth animal in my quest for Africa’s Big Five, as well as a few of the unique antelope found only in that country. In addition to my .300 Weatherby Magnum for the antelope, I took a Winchester Model 70 chambered for the .375 Winchester Magnum for the rhino. My hunt began in what then was called Zululand (now KwaZulu Natal), when I flew from California to Johannesburg and on to the city of Durban on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coastline. I had booked two separate hunts, back-to-back, beginning with the first part of a two-part plains game hunt with PH Johan van Riet of Saaiman Hunting Safaris. Johan met me in Durban and drove me to a town called Warmbad in Limpopo Province, where I shot a blue wildebeest on a farm owned by a man named R.M. Joubert who happened to be the grandfather of Johan’s wife. A couple of things are worth mentioning about this part of the safari. For one, while we were hunting wildebeest it literally rained guinea fowl! Johan said someone who owned the adjacent farm was poisoning the birds and the birds were dropping out of the sky as they flew to the farm we were hunting. For another, Johan drove me to another farm where he had arranged for me to hunt a blue duiker with Rex Amm. Before the hunt, Rex had me practice shooting a bouncing ball. The shotgun he loaned me for this leg of the hunt was a break-open single-shot, and I was expected to hit the ball on the first bounce. It was like shooting sporting clays, and he was satisfied when I hit the ball more often than not. The practice apparently helped because I had no problem hitting a small blue duiker, a Natal red duiker and a Livingstone suni after we drove back to Zululand. (The red duiker and suni both qualified for the SCI record book.) Rex had a small Jack Russell terrier that would chase these miniature antelope out of the thickets where they lived. The first time he released the dog he was concerned that I might shoot it instead of a duiker. It was easy to see how such an accident might happen – the little dog was hot on the heels of the small ram I shot when it chased my blue duiker past me. Rex needn’t have worried, though. I would not have shot unless the terrier was in the clear, even without his repeated Rex Amm (left) with his Jack Russell terrier buddy and author with blue duiker.