The Smile of Death in Africa
Largest of all reptiles, the crocodile is arguably the deadliest creature ever to walk or swim the face of the earth. Water beckons to most of the world. The inland bodies: lakes, streams, rivers and ponds, shimmer blue and tempting, time of passage, a respite from...
Buffalo Dream, Bison Nightmares
No time to fart or fumble, on my belly with a beast that had tried to kill a man only the day before. Willard Sumption had a buffalo ranch a little south of Aberdeen in that rolling country east of the Missouri breaks. Willard had one bad eye from the time two of his...
The Chance and Challenge for Kobus Moller
"To me, you should judge the painting by the emotion it creates." About a year ago, South African artist Kobus Moller arrived at a crossroads in his career. Though demand for his work was high and he was making a comfortable living from his art, Kobus was experiencing...
A Cold One in Formidable Country
What compels hunters to enter into difficult, even life-threatening situations? Dangerous terrain, fierce winds and bitter cold are never fun, yet many hunters not only accept these hardships, they're challenged by them. The mountain climber's answer, "because it's...
The Big Sixth Should Be a Hippo
Hippos will fool you. Fat, slow, benign and slightly cartoonish. Except they aren't. This two-and-a-half-ton herbivore kills more humans every year than lions, leopards, elephant and buffalo combined. The Big Five should be the Big Six, and the biggest of the lot...
Death in the Wild African Dust
We were standing three abreast when a cow charged through the dust. It was Rick Stoeckel’s second African hunt, as with most he had cut his teeth on plains game and couldn't wait to return for something big. By the time our plane bounced down hard on the old military...
Peter Principals In African Wildlife Art
Peter Gray and Peter Stewart, two painters living in South Africa, inhabit different corners of the Cape region and chronologically are a generation apart. But each welcomes the direction that contemporary wildlife art is taking. In case you haven't noticed, these are...
The Fury of A Lion
We were camped on the edge of Pom Pom Lagoon in the game-filled Matsebe concession, located deep in northern Botswana’s 4,000-square-mile Okavango Delta. Here, brush-covered islands, mopane sand and big herds of buffalo, primary prey of the area’s magnificent lions....
Legends of the Elephant Tail
Aspiring elephant hunters dream of large tusks and an elephant hair bracelet on their right arm. Before the turn of the 20th century, natives living in remote regions of Africa begrudgingly shared their home ranges with elephants. They were often forced to defend...
The Other Side of the Dream
Webster was adrift in time again. For 30 minutes, or it could have been hours, the leopard fed. The sun was setting behind the dangling bait, a shoulder from the zebra Webster had killed two days before. Forty yards away, Webster watched through a peephole in the...