Latest news with #biggamehunting
Telegraph
09-08-2025
- Telegraph
Big game hunters are not pantomime villains
When it comes to social derision, big game hunters are right up there with paedophiles and traffic wardens. There are few things that have the potential to ruin one's life quite as effectively as a picture of you, rifle in hand, standing next to a dead elephant. Those who can afford to go to Africa to hunt 'big game' now tend to agree that the first rule of trophy hunting is no photos. It was not surprising when the death, last week, of Asher Watkins, a big game hunter from Texas, was cheered on social media by those who would self-identify as progressive and kind. Mr Watkins, a Texas rancher was gored to death by a Cape buffalo while hunting in South Africa. Over on the socials, thoughtful animal lovers have weighed with hopes that it 'was slow and agonising'; somebody identifying as 'a dad' and a Mancunian football lover notes cheerily that there's now 'one less piece of sh-- on the planet.' It's worth thinking about the impact of these big game hunters. To be clear, big game hunting is not poaching – it is immensely expensive, it tends to be very well organised, and annoyingly for those who condemn, it is a vital contributor to the conservation of some of the world's most impressive species. It might seem paradoxical but where big game hunting is managed well, the local community sees species such as elephants as having value. People will pay a lot to hunt them, in order for them to prosper, the habitat needs to be maintained. Where they aren't seen as having value, they are often just felt to be crop-destroying pests. There's no getting away from it, where big game hunting flourishes, animal populations flourish too. In Zimbabwe for instance, just this summer, they had to cull elephants because the population has become too large – the reason they are doing so well is because of people like Mr Watkins. Its important to note that big game hunters target old bulls which often actually prevent younger animals from breeding – for the herd to thrive, the old buffalos must go. 'The dugga boys', the Zulus used to call them. Botswana's elephant population is some 130,000 and a decision was taken, after consultation with local people whose farms were being destroyed, to lift the ban on hunting, which meant a sustainable number to be shot. Absurdly, this was met with opposition from that brilliant naturalist Joanna Lumley who lobbied the-then president to keep the ban in place. Alright for Joanna, who has precisely no farming interests in the country and plenty of money. Over the border in Namibia, hunting brings the 82 community-owned game conservancies an average of £5.5 million a year and the hunting sector has created 15,000 jobs. Rather than poaching animals, locals take paying hunters out to track them through the bush. The conservation argument and the economic one are frankly irrefutable – in a sense the more interesting thing about it all is the way that people like Lumley appear to feel that they should be able to dictate the way that Africans live their lives. It's a sort of neo-colonial outlook that privileges western feelings above all else. Sure the trackers might be out of a job, sure the elephant population might plummet, but Lumley will be able to say she's won. A London lawyer who makes trips to Africa to hunt big game when he can afford it told me that the difference between land managed for hunting and land where there is no managed hunting 'is night and day'. The wildlife in the former thrives whereas in the latter it can be dead. 'How many species', he put it to me (having returned recently from a buffalo hunt), 'benefit from that post-breeding age buffalo being shot'. But the thing he really wanted me to understand is that after he'd shot his 'buff', everyone from the village came to get the meat. They even smoked the hooves together. What hunting gives him is an understanding of a culture and a community that going on holiday simply can't. He didn't want to put his name to his words because it would possibly ruin his career.
New York Times
07-08-2025
- New York Times
Big-Game Hunter, Eying His Next Trophy, Is Killed by Buffalo During Safari
A wealthy big-game hunter from Texas was killed on Sunday when a Cape buffalo that he had been eying for his next trophy attacked him during a safari in South Africa, according to the company that arranged the expedition. The victim, Asher Watkins, 52, a Dallas real estate executive who sold ranches, was pursuing one of the horned buffaloes in Limpopo Province, the northernmost province in South Africa, when the attack happened, Coenraad Vermaak Safaris said in an email on Thursday. A mature Cape buffalo bull can weigh nearly 2,000 pounds, the company's website says, cautioning that it is not unusual for buffaloes to charge hunters without provocation and that 'no species on the planet has a more fearsome reputation.' The aggressive temperament of the Cape buffalo has earned it a nickname: black death. 'Asher was fatally injured in a sudden and unprovoked attack by an unwounded buffalo he was tracking together with one of our professional hunters and one of our trackers,' Hans Vermaak, whose family runs the safari company, said in a statement. The safari company, which did not provide further details about the deadly encounter, said that it was cooperating fully with the authorities to make sure that it had followed all of the proper procedures. The South African Police Service did not respond on Thursday to a request for comment. Mr. Watkins had a daughter and was divorced. He was a managing partner of Watkins Ranch Group, a land broker specializing in ranches and recreational properties, some listing for more than $20 million, according to his LinkedIn profile and the company's social media accounts. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Times
06-08-2025
- Times
US hunter gored to death by buffalo he was tracking in South Africa
An American big game hunter and millionaire has been killed by the buffalo he was tracking on a hunt in South Africa. Asher Watkins, a 52-year-old from Texas, was fatally hurt in a 'sudden and unprovoked attack' by the 'unwounded' animal at a reserve in Limpopo province on Sunday, according to the professional hunting operation hosting him. A statement by CV Safaris added: 'He was tracking it together with one of our professional hunters and one of our trackers. This is a devastating incident, and our hearts go out to his loved ones.' The Cape buffalo, one of Africa's so-called big five along with the lion, leopard, rhinoceros and elephant, is highly prized by trophy hunters and notorious for its unpredictability, earning the nickname 'black death' for its habit of charging without warning when threatened or wounded. The males can weigh just under a ton and reach speeds of up to 35mph. On its website CV Safaris warns that Cape buffaloes 'are known to charge unprovoked' and that 'no species on the planet has a more fearsome reputation'. Citing some 200 human deaths attributed to the buffalo in Africa each year, it added: 'The buffalo is regarded as the most dangerous animal to pursue in Africa, let alone the world.' Hans Vermaak, of CV Safaris, said the attack had shaken the staff who witnessed it. Watkins's brother, mother and step-father had travelled with him to South Africa and had stayed behind at their luxury lodge when he left for the 50,000-acre Bambisana reserve, where hunters can choose between rifles and bows on hunts priced at the equivalent of about £7,500. • The world's 12 most dangerous animals• Who killed Blondie? Lion 'lured from reserve by trophy hunter' Vermaak added: 'We are doing everything we can to support the family members who are here with us and those back in the United States as they navigate this tragic loss.' Watkins made his fortune in ranching real estate and was a managing partner at Watkins Ranch Group, an affiliate of LIV Sotheby's International Realty. His company biography described him as a man who 'spent the better part of his life in the outdoors'. Images on Watkins's Facebook page are predominantly of him and relatives posing beside the bodies of the animals they had killed, mostly birds, but also an antelope and a mountain lion.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Day our greatest big game hunter came face-to-face with 'the Maneater of Chowgarh'... and was only saved by his trusty Rigby rifle: ROBERT HARDMAN
On the afternoon of April 11, 1930, the celebrated British big-game hunter Jim Corbett nearly met his maker. He was painstakingly following a trail through the Agar forest in northern India in pursuit of a tigress which had already consumed 64 people. The terrified locals were pinning their hopes on Corbett.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Animal rights campaigners are roaring with rage at royal exhibit over stuffed 8ft Bengal tiger
The Royal Family bowed to political correctness a decade ago and removed a vast cache of big-game hunting exhibits from the so-called Trophy Room at Sandringham. Now, animal rights campaigners are demanding that a stuffed 8ft Bengal tiger from one of George V 's big-game hunts in Asia should be removed from Bristol Museum, returned home and given a respectful burial. The big cat was shot by King Charles 's great-grandfather during his infamous ten-day hunting trip to Nepal in 1911 when he proudly claimed he killed 21 tigers, eight rhinos and a bear, describing the cull afterwards as 'a record'. He added: 'I think it will be hard to beat.' The tiger was then shipped back from Nepal for the King and stuffed by a taxidermist. It can be seen crouching hidden in long grass in front of a painted mural by the wildlife artist Stanley Lloyd. The mural shows a bearded George V in a khaki safari outfit and pith helmet riding an elephant, with his shotgun poised ready to fire. Above the cabinet is written the legend: 'Shot and presented by His Majesty King George V, 1911.' Elisa Allen, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), says: 'Almost all animals stuffed and mounted were shot for sport or otherwise violently killed, and there are two ways to deal with this shameful past behaviour. 'Bury the dead respectfully, no matter how long it has been [since they died], just as we are returning human remains and artefacts to their countries of origin.' Failing that, the museum should at the very least 'make sure the plaque describing [the animals] decries their horrific dispatch', she adds. Dr Mark Jones, of the Born Free Foundation, says: 'Trophy hunting had a devastating impact on the populations of many species.' Days after Monty Python colleague Sir Michael Palin turned 82, John Cleese mischievously suggests a wager. The Fawlty Towers star, 85, announces: 'Michael Palin had a birthday. To mark the occasion, I propose a bet: $100 to whoever lives longer. Winner gets it from the other's will.' Cleese appears to need rather more. Reflecting on his £15 million divorce from Alyce Faye Eichelberger, he revealed: 'The third wife got two properties, one was in London and one was in New York, and we had to sell the other three.' Damian's bid to be best dad Damian Lewis made the Bafta TV awards a family affair by bringing his children along. The Eton-educated star, 54, was joined on the red carpet at London's Royal Festival Hall by his daughter Manon, 18, and son Gulliver, 17. Their mother, the Peaky Blinders actress Helen McCrory, died from breast cancer in 2021, aged 52. Lewis was nominated for a best supporting actor award for his performance as Henry VIII in the BBC's acclaimed drama Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light, but was beaten by Ariyon Bakare for Mr Loverman. Swimwear designer Melissa Odabash will soon mark 25 years in the business, but still suffers from body hang-ups because of working with models. At the Fragrance Foundation Awards she tells me: 'I did a live casting on Skype with 35 models and it's not so easy. 'They all get their bikinis on in their houses. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I need to go to the gym'.' How Zara tackled Mike's snoring Zara Tindall has revealed that she secretly filmed her husband, Mike, while he was asleep to convince him to have surgery on his nose, which he broke at least eight times during his illustrious rugby career. 'When he was playing, there was no point in doing it,' Zara says at the London Sporting Club lunch at Quaglino's in St James's. 'But when I started to film him at night when he was sleeping and stopping breathing, I was like, 'You see where I am coming from now?' ' King Charles's niece adds: 'I am a really deep sleeper and I normally get to sleep before him. It is fixed now, better than what it was.' The former England captain said his mother-in-law, Princess Anne, asked him to have surgery before he married Zara in 2011. He finally did so in 2018. Her first major role was in a television drama opposite her mother, Kate Winslet, but Mia Threapleton insists that she's no 'nepo baby'. 'I feel like it's a misconception about me, considering who my mother is, that I grew up going to set or that I would know anything about this world because of her and what she does,' says the 24-year-old actress, whose father is the Oscar winner's first husband, film director Jim Threapleton. 'That is not the case at all. I genuinely can count on not even two hands the amount of times I went to set as a kid. There were never scripts lying around the house.' Strictly no mention of Dame Arlene Phillips turning 82 next week. The former Strictly judge tells me: 'My family said, 'Do you just want to skip it?' I said, 'That sounds like a very good idea.' So, I'm skipping my birthday. I've had so many amazing birthdays – I don't need any more.'
