ALF,

The term "greatest" is a relative judgment and depends on who is doing the judging.

Viljoen and Jacobs were basically meat (ivory) hunters, much as Selous, who were potting every living thing they came across, or at least this is what I have concluded from the mentions of them in the literature.

Many of the turn of the 19th century hunters give the distinction of the greatest elephant hunter to Jimmy Sutherland. I would agree with that in that, from his book anyway, there was a spirit of the love of elephant hunting, not primarily for financial gain but for his love of elephants and elephant hunting.

Was what Sutherland or Viljoen or Selous did better or worse than the pure "trophy" unters today? At least today the typical tourist-hunter is restricted from killing everything in sight.

For better or worse, it was the British that apparently promoted the idea of game conservation while the reputation of the Boers of eliminating game in South Africa to the last animal is presumably well deserved.

All these men were great hunters. Who was the greatest depends on ones own definition of hunting, conservation, and sport.