Red light hunting

[pomoxis]

At a recent sportsman show in the United States there was 1 safari company that said they had 100% success on bush pig. Knowing that they are nocturnal I was a little skeptical. The outfitter said they use a red light to allow the hunter to pick their target.

Should artificial lights be used for African hunting? Is it really fair chase ethics?

[PhilLozano]

Dear Mr. Pomoxis,

I cannot be sure, but it sounds like a hunt in S.A.. If it is, or is not, I can explain a bit about hunting in South Africa.

Once you have fenced in your property and are a certified 'Game Farm/Ranch', you can hunt whenever you want to, and set your own regulations/restrictions. You (the owners) become the Game Department. They do not have to adhere to the laws of the State/Province Game Dept. If they did, they would not offer hunting year round. They would have to comply with the designated hunting seasons, set by the Govt., Kudu season might be open from May 1st, through July 1st (example, as I do not remember when the season was open).

However, you have opened a very big can of worms with the light question.

Is it ethical hunting animals in a 15,000 acre cage? It is ethical hunting animals that live on a small Island, or Sitatunga in a smaller swamp , where they have no reasonable chance to escape ?

Are these things ethical? Considered Fair Chase? It is hard to draw the line where fair chase begins and ends. I believe it is a matter of what you personally feel is "fair" to you. Fairness is one of those almost undefinable terms. Do you feel good about how you just acquired the animal. So long as you have complied with all laws and feel good about how you got there, then it is fair, for you. Others could judge differently, but they are then applying their beliefs and values.

None of these questions are easily answered.

Let me know your thoughts.

Best,
Phil

[Dom]

You could make arguments both ways, especially for nocturnal game. Could say, no lights, and contend with more risky wounding shots. Are the animals nocturnal because they don't get any peace and quiet during normal hours, for a number of reasons, or by nature. What are the legal hunting hours? If they are all night, and no lights, you depend much more on moon and/or snow cover. If the climate dictates never any snow, then you're down to a week to 10 days of moonlight, depending on how thick the clouds are.

Would say it comes down to the legality and how comfortable you are with hunting with lights. If legal, and you've made identification, you have a much higher pecentage of making a clean kill with light. Can be a contencious subject, and I'll agree with Phil that it can be a can of worms.

Like, if you've got a fence around 100,000 hectar, lots of people say you're on a canned hunt. Heck, 100,000 hectar is a chunk of ground. Does size matter? Of course, but you have to put it in context. What about natural and man made barriers, whether water or highways or cliffs, etc. Make any difference?

I dunno, sometimes you just gotta live with yourself and your ethics. Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[PhilLozano]

Dear Mr. Dom,

Well thought out and well stated.

Hunting may be legal with a light, however, you may not feel it is correct.

As I stated previously, so long as you have complied with all laws and feel good about how you hunted, then it is fair and ethical.

I think you are correct, in the end you are the one that must decide what is fair and ethical for you.

Best,
Phil

[Andrew McLaren]

I cannot speak with any real authority for all 9 Provinces, but at least in some it would be perfectly legal to hunt a bushpig at night by artificial light.

What would concern me is a "guarantee" of 100% success. Does that mean that the one single client that was taken out got his one tiny little piggy? Or does it mean that all of the large number of clients over quite a few years all got Roland Ward qualifier males? Bushpigs are notoriously difficult to hunt ethically, ask me, I know because I've often tried and seldom succeeded.

I've been in this hunting outfitting game long enough to know that where anyone guarantees anything, the client should beware and tread very carefully! It is here where the ethics become an issue, a real can of worms.

Just incidentally I think it fair to say that there is just no way to economically fence in bushpigs. They will bust through all but the very best of fences, and to make a fence "bushpig-proof" would require the expenditure of so much money that it would become totally uneconomical venture - unless you offer guaranteed hunts in the cage???confused:

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren: