Elephant hunting means the entire hunting party counts on you to make a clean, killing shot. Chris Dorsey shows how it’s done in this awe-inspiring video.
Every elephant hunting experience starts with a new frame of mind, an awakening that the stakes are higher — not only for you but for everyone involved. When the time comes, the entire hunting party counts on you to save their lives by making a clean, killing shot. The alternative is the unthinkable and the stuff of nightmares, so I go into this trip with the sobriety of a wedding proposal.
In 1973, Kenya’s ban on elephant hunting created an open season for poachers who decimated that country’s herds. For nearly a half century, Kenya’s elephant populations have failed to recover because of the illicit trade in poached ivory. Voices of western nations — many in Europe — that originally heralded the hunting ban are nowhere to be heard now, for the groups that chanted loudest for the hunting closure cared more about what funds they could raise off the international press coverage than the actual fate of elephants.
If history has taught us one lesson about elephants, sport hunting sustains the only management model that funds protection of the species; eco-tourism alone has failed to protect the herds in every instance. Hunting a few elephants with carefully controlled quotas, in the end, protects the many. Replace emotion with science and the future for elephants across the African continent would be bright. As it is, countries that allow elephant hunting have populations doing far better than nations that have “protected” the great beasts. And these facts are indisputable, no matter how inconvenient for animal rights organizations who offer no sustainable way forward for the elephant.
Note: This article and video are excerpted from Chris Dorsey’s book and DVD Director’s Cut, available in the Sporting Classics Store.
The World Of Sporting Literature Has A New Classic from one of the planet’s most widely traveled hunters. Director’s Cut…Big game hunting through the lens of the largest outdoor TV producer in history, is a book and film production more than 15 years in the making. Author and Executive Producer Chris Dorsey, along with a team of the world’s best sporting life photographers and cinematographers, embarked on expeditions to distant corners of the globe to create an indelible portrait of big game hunting.
Dorsey has spent the past 25 years investigating and chronicling the animals, people and unforgettable places home to remarkable big game hunts while producing nearly 60 outdoor adventure television series. In the process, his teams amassed a library of more than 100,000 hours of HD footage and nearly 150,000 photographs, making Director’s Cut (the book and DVD) an unmatched celebration of the world of big game hunting. Buy Now
