Zambia

 

Zambia differs to the hunting in South Africa for a number of reasons but most significantly it is the location of animals that determines where you should book your hunt. Zambia consists of hunting blocks called Game Management Area (GMA) which all border on National Parks creating a buffer zone for the National Parks. Natural rivers have a vast influence of where certain animals are located.

 

For example you will not find Blue Wildebeest North or East of the Kafue River. South and West of the Kafue River you find Chacma Baboon while North and East of the Kafue River you find Yellow Baboon. Cooksen Wildebeest are only found East of the Luangwa River.

 

The GMA where you would go hunting would depend on which species are your priority. There are numerous GMA's that are considered depleted, although with hard hunting you are almost always rewarded with good size trophies in these areas as they are not hunted as much. The remainder of the GMA's all provide excellent hunting especially Lion, Leopard and Buffalo.

 

LION and LEOPARD

 

Zambia is one of the few countries where cat hunting still has the great aura of hunting dangerous game end makes the hunt very enticing.

 

Once again the Lion vary from GMA to GMA with some areas having huge manes and others you have Lion with massive bodies but small or hardly any manes due to the type of habitat. The denser the vegetation the less likely the Lions will good manes.

 

Zambia is still great for hunting Leopard. These illusive cats can often be found during a hunt, in the middle of the day and are quite common throughout Zambia. Due to the Government fees being more or less the same as for a Lion hunt, the hunting of Leopard has been fairly expensive compared to other countries. For this reason not as many Leopard have been hunted as what there were on quota. Although the Government encouraged Leopard hunting to take some of the pressure of the Lion hunts, the pricing stayed the same.

 

BUFFALO

 

Like Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, Zambia has been one of the countries where record Buffalo are taken of every now and then. I have seen herds in excess of a thousand at times and although this sounds amazing, such big herds are difficult to hunt as selecting enormous bulls from there becomes an almost impossible task.

 

Most of the GMA's in the Luangwa  have good Buffalo as well as some in the Kafue area although there are a couple where you will not succeed in your hunt.

 

ANTELOPES

 

Sable taken of in Zambia has been exceptional although limited to the Kafue GMAs of western Zambia. Unfortunately the Government regard these animals as the same category as Lion and Leopard and so with them goes a heavy Government fee pushing up the daily rates and a minimum of 14 day hunt.

 

Roan are scarce all over and Zambia is no exception. The chances are that you will have great difficulty in taking a good trophy. These animals were heavily poached which unfortunately saw a drastic decrease in numbers. Price wise they fall in the same category as Sable.

 

Zambia's other species to consider are: Lichtenstein's Hartebeest, Defassa Waterbuck, Cookson's Wildebeest, Hippo, Sharpe's Grysbok, Hyena, Oribi, Puku, Lechwe and Sitatunga. A few northern Kafue GMAs have forest species like Yellow-backed Duiker and Blue Duiker but they are likely to be very rare.