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Actually, the photos are a composite of three hunts. Both the elephants were taken in Kenya, one as you surmised on a sisal plantation just on the edge of the Amboseli Game Reserve. He was one of a group of elephant which came out of the Reserve at night to raid the sisal. You might just make out a puncture on my right arm which was the result of an encounter with one of the sharp sisal thorns. The other elephant, the one with the enormous (96 pound) single tusk, was taken on the very last day of the hunt near the Tana River in the North East Territory, where we had been tracking elephant for three weeks. The rhino was a trespasser on private land adjacent to the Aberdares Game Reserve. Had I not shot him, the Game Department would have, on the basis of land owner complaints. I have no pictures of the two elephants taken in Tanzania, except for the one of Sabuni, the tracker, holding the freshly extracted tusk, but the leopard was taken the same day, and the greater kudu and lion represented another day's bag. The three buffalos were taken in the space of about two minutes out of a very cooperative herd. All of the Tanzanian trophies came from Ker, Downey's concession in the Selous. The record book Peter's gazelle as well as the very large bodied buffalo were taken in Kenya on my last trip there. This was after the ban on elephant hunting had been in effect, but obviously before the absolute ban on hunting. I consider myself most fortunate to have been able to experience that kind of hunting under those circumstances, which will never, I'm afraid, be available again. |