The Bear Slayer
A hunter extraordinaire, Ben Lilly was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the greatest bear-slayers of his time.
Wounded Comrade
It was 1913 when renowned hunter and sculptor Carl Akeley created his most famous sculpture, “Wounded Comrade.” Inspired by an actual event Akeley witnessed on his first trip to Africa in 1896, and encouraged by fellow sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor, he sculpted...
A Company of Gentlemen Adventurers
The huge beast literally ripped off Pickering’s head.
The Jewett Gap Grizzly
Using a .30-30 Winchester, the one-armed hunter would finally slay the Jewett Gap Grizzly, ending its ten-year reign of terror among cattle ranchers in the Old West. In the 1890s an unusually large and savage grizzly had been marauding the livestock of ranchers in the...
A Battle for Survival
Precariously perched in the small tree, the hunter peered into the night, his eyes slowly adjusting to the eerie light cast by the moon. The year was 1903; the place: Sabi Sands, South Africa. Harry Wolhuter was shaking from a combination of cold and fear. What was...
Royal Hunter
On a trip to Nepal several years ago, I was making my way apprehensively along a maze of trails to a remote tent camp in the Chitwan area. Adding to my anxiety, I had passed several fresh pugmarks of tigers, and as the light began to fade I imagined a big cat watching...
Trouble with Lions
For weeks on end, deadly man-eaters would plague Arthur Neumann’s safari. The English hunter, Arthur Neumann, was still recovering from a terrible mauling by an angry cow elephant in the Lake Rudolph area of British East Africa (now Lake Turkana, Kenya). The year was...
The Final Charge: Roosevelt’s Bull Moose
A loner by nature, the eastern bull moose is a completely different animal during the rut, when it wages savage fights for dominance with other males. In the fall of 1915, 57-year-old Theodore Roosevelt went big game hunting for the last time. It would prove to be one...
Safari Origins: The First Seeds of Conservation
Involving dozens of porters and other native helpers, the early safaris were lavish affairs that only the wealthiest sportsmen could afford.
