African Hunting Safaris - Hunting Areas in Africa

There are more hunting opportunities in Africa today than ever before. The African continent represents the best value for money in the entire hunting world with many safaris today costing less than a hunt in the US. Africa has historically been classified into three major hunting regions: East, Central and Southern Africa.

East Africa is what most people imagine when they think of the classic safaris of the past in Kenya and Tanzania. These are traditional big game safaris in truly wild areas focusing primarily on big Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and a variety of plains game species like Sable, Roan, Kudu, Eland, Waterbuck, etc.

Central Africa has the jungles and open savannas, pygmies and rare species such as the elusive Bongo, the biggest of all African Antelope the Giant Lord Derby Eland, the mystical duikers and dwarf buffalo.

And finally you have Southern Africa consisting of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. These countries host 70% of all hunting in Africa from full Big 5 Safaris to short plains game hunts.

The differences in hunting East, Central and Southern Africa are great. Factors of cost, physical condition, previous African experience and desired species are crucial to planning a safari.

Geography, climate and habitat dictate the fauna available, and Adventure Unlimited selects only the areas that sustain healthy populations with trophy quality animals. Using all of our resources we can fine-tune your plans for an African hunting safari.

There are three basic types of hunting areas found in Africa today:

Concession Areas- these areas are vast uninhabited tracts usually bordering a national park or preserve. Concessions range in size from 100,000 acres to in excess of million acres. They abound in dangerous game and herds of plains game, as dictated by their proximity to the parks and reserves. These areas produce the best quality Lion, Cape Buffalo, Elephant and excellent Leopard as well.

Private Land Ranches & Conservancies- These areas are quite large (20,000 to 120,000 acres), and aside from South Africa, are primarily unfenced. They offer the best plains game hunting, and without a doubt produce the best leopard in Africa.

Several of the private landowners in some of the southern African countries have pooled their properties together into huge tracts, some as big as a million acres, and the Conservancy was born.

Using strict quotas and regulations some of these conservancies such as the Save Conservancy in Zimbabwe have healthy populations of all of the Big Five and can offer superb safaris for everything from a short 7-day plains game hunt to full collection safaris.

Communal & Tribal Trust Lands- A comparison to these types of areas would be the huge Native Indian Reservations in the United States. Roughly 30 years ago some of the African governments began programs that would directly benefit their indigenous people.

The result was the Campfire and similar programs that are instrumental in showing the local communities that preservation and proper management of wildlife has a true dollar value.

Funds derived from sport hunting are poured into the native economy to build schools, provide income for lost crops and improve the quality of life for both the locals and the wildlife. These areas have excellent big game hunting at a reasonable price, especially for elephant and buffalo.

By : John_AU_Barth