It came as a shock to me, as I browsed a recent issue of Sports Afield Magazine ( for which I used to write occasionally ), to notice the red lechwe listed as one of the most endangered antelopes in Africa. The reason for my surprise was that on my visits to Botsawana's great Okovango delta in 1974, 1976 and 1987, the red lechwe was arguably the most abundant antelope present.

Zebras get no respect. They're common and widespread, and aren't classed as dangerous game. Oh, yeah? Ask Harry Shelby, the legendary professional hunter, about the time his client dropped a zebra and Harry drove the safari car close and got out. The "dead" zebra leaped up and charged.

No African safari could get very far without native trackers. These men are proud professionals, indispensable to the Professional Hunters (PH) they assist, and their talents are admired even among their own people. They are the elite of the safari crew.

We spotted the nyati early, before the sun had begun to clang like a blacksmith's hammer on the anvil of southern Africa. They were not the first of the safari–you couldn't travel very far in Mozambique in the early '70s without seeing thousands of Cape buffalo–but those had been mere background for the intoxicating realization that we were, at long last, in Africa. It was the first safari for both my companion, Jack Carter, and me. We'd flipped a coin, agreeing to alternate shooting opportunities as they came, regardless of species... except for two.

Reprinted for Houston Safari Club Hunter's Horn; Spring 2021 - Leopard maulings of sport hunters have never been particularly uncommon, but fatalities from them have never been as numerous as from the other members of the Big Five.