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"Hunting in Pakistan, Old Tales"
by "Preacher"

Stories of "Preachers" hunts in Pakistan sixteen years ago.

PART ONE.- THE SIND DESERT.
The first part of the trip in the Sind happened without noticeable incidents. We travelled from Karachi to the desertic Dureji by car and spent 5 or 6 days looking for the Sind Ibex and the Baluchi Urial. Our base camp there was in the house of a tribal chief man of that part of the Sind; Iqbal said that it had to be Saleh Bothani, and this name sounds to me, so I would say that it was him. What I do remember very well was the hospitality received by him and his whole male family. (For those of you not knowing this, I have to say that, due to traditions, never saw a single woman in somebody else´s house).

So we did alright taking a very nice Ibex, a little bit shorter than we would have liked to, due to a too optimistic guess of our local guide. One important thing, amongst others, to learn before travelling to hunt an unfamiliar species, is to try to guess its size according to the distance and bodysize. Many surprises can be avoided, as certain animals look much bigger that they are in fact. You see some tremendous horns above the body but what you don´t know is that that body is very small. This is what happened when I saw the goat.

"The Sindh Ibex, beautiful but shorter than it should´ve"

My first shocked experience took place right after the good long shot. The local guide and the other 2 assistants started a crazy run to the goat to try to finally kill it according to the “Halal” ceremony. None prevented me against that and I was amazed of what I was seeing. They reached the Ibex when it was still breathing, and made a hole with a knife on its neck, while blessing it in the Name of Allah and looking to Meca´s direction. (Iqbal can explain this much better than me). This ceremony is obligatory before muslims can eat an animal, unless it is for severe surviving reasons.

"Neck cut; the Halal, now they can eat it"

Away from the toughest mountainous country of the Ibex, we found and hunted the Baluchi Urial by riding camels, that we also used to climb the first steps of the mountains.

"A view to a Kill" Front rocks where the Ibex was taken.

Another new experience.

This beautiful sheep is rigorously described as different a subspecies by famous Raul Valdez on his book Sheeps and Goats of the World. I say this because some others biologists think that this sheep is nothing but an Afghan Urial.

"Big and wonderful Baluchi Urial; full curl"

Due to the lack of hunts in the area, approaching and shooting was a fairly easy thing, compared with other mountains hunts. As you can see by the picture, it was a very nice ram that was also finalized by the “Halal” ceremony.

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