Welcome to Realtree Global Hunting on Team Wild TV.
This week we bring you a very special episode looking at hunting and poaching
In the African nation of Mozambique. Our very own Ian Harford spend 10 days out in
Mozambique last Autumn, and experienced
in the wilds of Africa, no fences, no creature comforts
and nothing's certain. If you want to hunting safari
with white fluffy pillows air-conditioned rooms and wide screen
TVs
then friends, this ain't for you. Hunting in Mozambique
is not for the faint-hearted.
Well done man!
What a rush man, that you just saw back there
obviously one of there own is down just trying to protect it, but this guy
It was already too late. Ian took a variety of beautiful African game animals,
and met some colourful characters along the way.
However, hunting in this part of the world is not a simple case of turn up and shoot what you see.
Due to the difficult recent history of Mozambique
there's strict management guidelines in place and a lot of work goes into keeping animal numbers at healthy levels.
Mozambique lays in south-east Africa, on the Indian Ocean
Bordered by Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Swaziland and South Africa.
There is no hills or mountains here in Mahimba, it is pretty much flat as far as the eye can see
These ant hills are the highest
pieces of land, for miles around. In fact, during the rainy season
They are the only high points, which are still exposed from the water
Hunters have been known as they
have come early season here in Mahimba, to burn off grass
To find hundreds of carcases of wart hog.
As the water line has encroached on their natural habitat
and has forced them onto the top of the ant hills
they have eaten all the vegetation around leaving a bare cap
and finally just laid down and died.
This vast nation has had its fair share of ups and downs in the past
after four hundred years under Portuguese rule
Mozambique finally gained its independence in 1975 unfortunately
after the two short years of their own rule the country descended into violent
and bloody civil war
the last fifteen years however and the last decade
However, in the last decade Mozambique has been hailed as an aid success story as their economy has grown with blistering pace
Despite their apparent success Mozambique
does rank among the lowest countries for GDP per capita human development
measures in a quality
an average life expectancy there's also been a cronic
rise of child malnutrition in the face GDP growth
with Great Depression civil war on poverty has come desperation
the once vast and plentiful herds of African animals that roam the beautiful Mozambique
wilderness
have all but disappeared.
The once world famous Gorongosa National Park saw it's animal numbers depleted during, and following, the bloody civil war
as hunting for bush meat became a necessity to live
Elephant, hippo, waterbuck and zebra numbers all dwindled to dangerously low levels and buffalo, common wildebeest, eland, sable and hartebeest were all but gone.
Now, the plains of Mozambique are beginning to fill with wildlife once again thanks to good management and hard work of people such as J.P. Kleinhans and his team.
J.P. and his team may operate a hunting camp deep in the wilderness of Mozambique, but killing animals is not their main goal. Instead J.P. ensures that animal herds stay strong, numbers are at good levels and that the entire community is behind what they are doing.
On first viewing and judging a book by its cover hunting may seem like killing, but in fact its about rejuvenation, game management and building strong herds
Similarly some of the action taken are a case of being cruel to be kind. The guys here at Mahimba burn large areas of elephant grass each year and the fire spread like... well... wild fire.
However, the burns may not look pretty and may leave areas dusty, but they have a purpose.
With all of the soot and ash and dust here, it is pretty hard going.
Its really hot, and its really dry, and walking behind gavin, has new meaning to eat my dust.
So it may look like
this river bend is completely dry
this one piece
bush buck
with all of this old grass, and the tall grass burnt down
the new shoots start to germinate and come through.
and there is luscious green grass underneath
So within a couple of weeks with the heavy morning dew
this
will almost be like a carpet
of green grazing.
J.P. provides year round jobs for over 70 people, despite the hunting season only consisting of a few months.
On top of work he provides each member of staff with two sets of clothes and 1 pair of boots and
the remaining food taken from each animal, after they've taken enough for the camp, goes to the local villages.
this way JP can manage to maintain the herds without to much fear
of poachers from local villages
if the local people have work, food and clothing, the would want for little else.
and these guys know all the tricks to surviving in the harsh climate and difficult conditions faced in Mozambique
Africa is a very touch place.
but nature
will always provided sustenance for you.
You want this to stay in the upright position.
There is always some sort of additional water.
So as you can see as Gavin said, water is absolutely vital
you have got to stay hydrated throughout the day
but nature always has a way of providing
and this
pull your water bottle from there, pure fresh and clear.
how much would one of these particular vines carry?
about 2 or 3 metres would give you about half a litre of water
Finding clean fresh water in Mozambique could be the difference between life and death should something go wrong in the bush.
In this remote part of Mozambique J.P.'s Mahimba camp is the
only source of employment for these people. As the ground is very dry
and not much good for crops, and the river is infested with crocodiles,
there's very little opportunity to make a living and to feed the family. Although,
some brave the waters to put out their nets.
J.P. knows that the local people live and breath this area,
knowing the animals, their patterns and how to track them.
Techniques passed down through generations of native people
here in Mozambique.
We are driving around looking for tracks
you can see clearly there is fairy fresh tracks
We look at the tracks to determine
how long the tracks were made, and when they came past here.
Then what happens is you walk around until you find something
obviously, cooler the piece the longer they have been yeah mean I physically stick there finger in there
and say
listen this is about 5 or 6 hours old.
Its absolutely incredible they can tell the time of day
just they just said six o'clock AM yeah 20 buffalo
came through here that this incredible skill these guys have got
yeah you see goodnight absolutely that I want to say that
24/7. 340 days
a year they are in this environment.
If they are not hunting, they are doing anti poaching
They know these animals, it is what they do.
absolutely, so what time is it now?
Quarter past nine, so we are only 3 hours and 15 minutes behind them.
So we better get on then yes?
From very little signs of life the trackers at Mahimba led Ian and J.P. to a huge herd of buffalo
where Ian took a cow for the table. His buffalo, and Gavin's
His buffalo, and Gavin's taken earlier that day were taken for a very special purpose.
So its day 7 in Mahimba and we have got a very special task
Local villages centenary celebrations this weekend
and Mahimba have given them 2 buffalo for meat.
For the celebrations, now they wanted two incredibly experienced
marksmen, world class hunters to take out these buffalo
like they weren't available so myself and Gavin, we have stepped up instead
So are you ready?
I'm sure as hell ready! So Gavin is going to shoot straightish
and i'm going to be there to back him up, and hopefully he is going to repay the favour.
Without Mahimba these people and the local villages would have little or no option
but to hunt for bush meat.
Poaching and hunting for bush meat would surely see the completely decimation of the animal herds in
this area
as people struggle to eat, but J.P. is working towards eradicating poaching from the areas surrounding Mahimba, as Ian found out.
What you can see behind me here is one of the anti poaching huts
now there is four camps in total
employing 36 people
whose sole task is to head into the bush and find any sign of poaching
be a camp be sticks be a snares and hopefully
catch some poachers, now here is very much a story
because the best anti-poaching staff are actually previous poachers themselves
they know exactly where to find the snazzy know exactly where to set up the
snares
for the best chance catching game as it happens without the hunting
poaching is the only way that these guys get access to meet with all the
commercial hunting that Mahimba actually brings in
all of the meat, the Buffalo, the sable, the water buck
whenever plays game a shot the meat is provided back to the anti poaching
camps
and also the surrounding villages without hunting in place
these guys wouldn't have enough to eat and therefore would need to go out
and the harvest their own bounty so these anti-poaching camps not only
protect
the game here from pooches they're also an essential part of the management
program here
without these anti poaching camps in place,all of the game would be killed
there would not be an animal left.
They are providing not only an essential service
insuring the success in the game for future generation.
So what you can see here is a snare that the poachers use
and as you can see behind me, there is a game trail which goes
from the bush and then that out that is probably used by bush bird, and all manner of
of things
so what they have done is fastened it to a heavier stick
and then loop this between two sticks over there
this looks pretty fresh? Yes, about 2-3 weeks
after the burn
so after the grass has obviously been burnt down
they have come back in and put the snares out
Yeah, it's massive you know
and that is why
it sounds silly but that was the hunting industry is preventing
is the animals being snared
for us we need to make sure that there are still animals left for the future.
and they will be out there everyday snaring
and carrying the meat back to there camps
that is why we have four anti poaching teams here
simply looking for snares and that
you can see this was 3-4 weeks back now
the funny thing is that hunting,
it means it not only employing people pooches
can gain keepers to anti poachers for one to a better description.
but also the get meat anyway so once we hunt today somebody's paying to put
money back into the community
giving jobs for locals there and the game that we shoot goes back to local
well
all the meat that doesnt get used
you know certain extent everything goes back into the community
and do this or the smaller villages mmm I mean you'll see
like with the hippo you'll have 15/20
of the local community coming into do and then edition
the meat is a gonna come to the village
Lets hope we dont find to many of these lying around
We found this old poachers camp, its about 2 years old.
they caught a young water buck, what they will do, is they will
a little wooden frame, they make fire under it, and smoke dry the meat
then they will carry them off, back to the village or something
Few old bones over there.
So how much poaching is there now? There is a lot of dangerous game here in Africa
It all depends on how you treat your anti poaching staff
At the moment its not to bad, I mean this is over 2 years old
So how many guys do you employ full time to stop the poaching
So at the moment we employ 35 guys
So we have four teams of 8 guys
they patrol towards each other every day
holes in goes a bit if the season but the to erase talk to each other
digital cameras so if they find something they will take pictures,
to keep a record what's going on you know how the snares and traps to find
each year
this year, id say about
50 - 60 snares
which is not bad, in a bad year they will take 300-400 down.
you know unfortunately in some other the companies don't look after there anti poaching teams
and they have to poach to eat.
They need something to live on so.
Its not always their fault. But if you look after the guys they will look after you.
game becomes I'm high-density
then the poachers will follow it right?
Yes of course, but its normally on the boundaries or along the rivers.
the anti poaching teams know a lot of our poaching guys are formal poachers
They know how they work
the best thing you can do is change them, and employ people
and that is the issue here
unemployment is a huge problem is that this issue is in these guys need for
themselves
and their families to the feed them and play them and give me a reason to stop
the poaching then
You know if we didnt hunt this area
then there would be nothing here
There would be nothing left
Guys like you guys spend money here.
Then we can afford to pay, then all that money trinkles down into the families
they
still get the meat, they get commercial animals
that was left of the area
so soon as game has value it becomes a commodity.
100%
So where there is game there is poaching, happens all over the world
and hear in Mozambique it is a particular problem
now sometimes it's for food for the family and other times it
just poaching for money
and what we have found here is a poachers shack which is pretty close to camp
so they are getting pretty brave
So Gavin is going to do us a huge favour and
set it fire to it
There's a lot of work goes into maintaining healthy herds of African game in the wilds of Mozambique and J.P. Kleinhans is doing a great job.
Animal numbers are managed, weak and unhealthy game taken from the herds when hunting and the local economy
and standard of life improved through the work done at Mahimba.
Hunting isn't just about killing animals, but is about management, breeding,
keeping herds healthy and ensuring that there's African game around for the next generation.
After all, if there's no animals, there's no hunting.