PH talks about safaris in today's Africa
By Larry Myhre, outdoor editor | Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2008
Professional Hunter Jannie Otto congratulates client Tom Ferry, right, on taking a trophy Cape buffalo. (Submitted photo)
What hunter hasn't dreamed of taking an African safari. For most, such a dream will remain just that. A dream. They think an African safari is just too expensive.
They simply don't realize you can go to Namibia or South Africa for about the same price that you can do a guided elk hunt in Wyoming.
"When most hunters think about going to Africa, they think about buffalo, lion, elephant, the really expensive things," says professional hunter (PH) Jannie Otto. "But you can come on a 10 day safari, hunt 7 to 8 different animals, do a lot of sight seeing in national parks and a thing like that will cost you less than $10,000."
Jannie has operated Jannie Otto Safaris out of South Africa for the past 18 years. He's had a lot of clients from the Sioux City area and he was in town earlier this year visiting at the home of friend and client Tom Ferry of Ponca, Neb.
"We booked 32 clients out of Ponca and the surrounding area last year alone," Jannie says.
Ferry, a world-wide hunter has been on four safaris with Jannie and will return again this summer for another.
"Hardly anyone goes to Africa just once," he smiles.
About 80 percent of Jannie's clients come from America and the rest from Spain, Canada, Mexico Australia and other countries.
Jannie has seen clients change over the years.
"Fifteen years ago, it was just the men coming to Africa to hunt," he says. "In the last eight years it is more husbands and wives coming in to do a little photography and hunting. In the last six years 80 percent of the safaris we do in South Africa are family safaris, father, mother and two or three kids, and they just have a fantastic time."
Hunting has made enormous contributions to the economy of the African countries Jannie operates in, and he is quick to point that out.
Without hunting, he says, there would be no game.
"Hunters coming to Africa have done just as much and maybe more for conservation than the official conservation departments were doing," Jannie says, "because hunters were putting a lot of money back into private hands, and because of that a lot of farmers are making a good living out of hunting. It created job opportunities and money. Some of the animal species were really endangered, and when farmers started protecting them their numbers came back.
"The safari industry in Africa is so different than any other part of the world," he continues. "The hunter feeds Africa."
Photo safaris are also growing in popularity.
"Within a three hour drive of our camp we have exciting places to take people to," he says. "We can go to one of the big national parks and just next to it is Sun City. It's like a little Las Vegas. We can leave camp at 5 a.m. go into the park, give the clients a very nice breakfast and then do some sightseeing and photography. At 2 p.m. we can go over to Sun City and enjoy the gardens, the beautiful golf courses and gambling."
A first safari for most people would focus on hunting plains game and many come back for a try at dangerous game.
"Everybody has a preference for what they want to hunt," Jannie says. "I think the first dangerous animal most would like to hunt is the Cape buffalo, a really fantastic animal.
"From the moment you pick up a fresh track or sight an animal it is very exciting," he continues. "It is a very tough animal. Its sense of smell, sight and hearing is unbelievable.
"A seven-day Cape buffalo hunt, including all taxes, visa, import permits for rifle and licenses is about $12,500," Jannie says. "You have to fly to get into the hunting areas otherwise it would take three to five days.
"There is no such thing as a cheap dangerous game safari," he adds. "If someone is offering you a cheap, dangerous game safari there is something wrong somewhere."
In South Africa 90 percent of the hunting is done on private land with areas running from 8,000 to 15,000 acres. And at the end of the day you return to the lodge. In other areas 99 percent of the hunting is on negotiated hunting blocks owned by the government.
By law in South Africa, a PH cannot take out more than 2 clients.
"We like to keep our groups small and give them a taste of Africa," Jannie says. "An average group will be a husband and wife. When we do dangerous game only one hunter per PH.
"In South Africa, we can usually come back for lunch. It will be the client, the PH and tracker," Jannie says. "In Tanzania or Mozambique we will go out in the morning and come back in the evening. We will have the PH, hunter, government scouts and usually two trackers. When following dangerous game we need one set of eyes on the track and one looking in front. We also will have one or two skinners. Support staff in that camp will be between 17 and 20 people."
Animals in camp at night?
"Oh, yes," Jannie smiles. "We get elephants in camp, hippos, hyenas especially after you get one or two animals and there's the smell of blood and meat.
"We use a lot of the meat ourselves for camp," he says, but 90 percent of the meat will go to the local people. Bush telegraph is just unbelievable. As soon as a buffalo or an elephant is down, there will be people coming to get the meat."
For more information about Jannie Otto Safaris, see:
www.jannieotto.com
Larry Myhre is outdoor editor of the Journal. Reach him at (712) 276-5965 or email at: lfentfish@msn.com
They simply don't realize you can go to Namibia or South Africa for about the same price that you can do a guided elk hunt in Wyoming.
"When most hunters think about going to Africa, they think about buffalo, lion, elephant, the really expensive things," says professional hunter (PH) Jannie Otto. "But you can come on a 10 day safari, hunt 7 to 8 different animals, do a lot of sight seeing in national parks and a thing like that will cost you less than $10,000."
Jannie has operated Jannie Otto Safaris out of South Africa for the past 18 years. He's had a lot of clients from the Sioux City area and he was in town earlier this year visiting at the home of friend and client Tom Ferry of Ponca, Neb.
"We booked 32 clients out of Ponca and the surrounding area last year alone," Jannie says.
Ferry, a world-wide hunter has been on four safaris with Jannie and will return again this summer for another.
"Hardly anyone goes to Africa just once," he smiles.
About 80 percent of Jannie's clients come from America and the rest from Spain, Canada, Mexico Australia and other countries.
Jannie has seen clients change over the years.
"Fifteen years ago, it was just the men coming to Africa to hunt," he says. "In the last eight years it is more husbands and wives coming in to do a little photography and hunting. In the last six years 80 percent of the safaris we do in South Africa are family safaris, father, mother and two or three kids, and they just have a fantastic time."
Hunting has made enormous contributions to the economy of the African countries Jannie operates in, and he is quick to point that out.
Without hunting, he says, there would be no game.
"Hunters coming to Africa have done just as much and maybe more for conservation than the official conservation departments were doing," Jannie says, "because hunters were putting a lot of money back into private hands, and because of that a lot of farmers are making a good living out of hunting. It created job opportunities and money. Some of the animal species were really endangered, and when farmers started protecting them their numbers came back.
"The safari industry in Africa is so different than any other part of the world," he continues. "The hunter feeds Africa."
Photo safaris are also growing in popularity.
"Within a three hour drive of our camp we have exciting places to take people to," he says. "We can go to one of the big national parks and just next to it is Sun City. It's like a little Las Vegas. We can leave camp at 5 a.m. go into the park, give the clients a very nice breakfast and then do some sightseeing and photography. At 2 p.m. we can go over to Sun City and enjoy the gardens, the beautiful golf courses and gambling."
A first safari for most people would focus on hunting plains game and many come back for a try at dangerous game.
"Everybody has a preference for what they want to hunt," Jannie says. "I think the first dangerous animal most would like to hunt is the Cape buffalo, a really fantastic animal.
"From the moment you pick up a fresh track or sight an animal it is very exciting," he continues. "It is a very tough animal. Its sense of smell, sight and hearing is unbelievable.
"A seven-day Cape buffalo hunt, including all taxes, visa, import permits for rifle and licenses is about $12,500," Jannie says. "You have to fly to get into the hunting areas otherwise it would take three to five days.
"There is no such thing as a cheap dangerous game safari," he adds. "If someone is offering you a cheap, dangerous game safari there is something wrong somewhere."
In South Africa 90 percent of the hunting is done on private land with areas running from 8,000 to 15,000 acres. And at the end of the day you return to the lodge. In other areas 99 percent of the hunting is on negotiated hunting blocks owned by the government.
By law in South Africa, a PH cannot take out more than 2 clients.
"We like to keep our groups small and give them a taste of Africa," Jannie says. "An average group will be a husband and wife. When we do dangerous game only one hunter per PH.
"In South Africa, we can usually come back for lunch. It will be the client, the PH and tracker," Jannie says. "In Tanzania or Mozambique we will go out in the morning and come back in the evening. We will have the PH, hunter, government scouts and usually two trackers. When following dangerous game we need one set of eyes on the track and one looking in front. We also will have one or two skinners. Support staff in that camp will be between 17 and 20 people."
Animals in camp at night?
"Oh, yes," Jannie smiles. "We get elephants in camp, hippos, hyenas especially after you get one or two animals and there's the smell of blood and meat.
"We use a lot of the meat ourselves for camp," he says, but 90 percent of the meat will go to the local people. Bush telegraph is just unbelievable. As soon as a buffalo or an elephant is down, there will be people coming to get the meat."
For more information about Jannie Otto Safaris, see:
www.jannieotto.com
Larry Myhre is outdoor editor of the Journal. Reach him at (712) 276-5965 or email at: lfentfish@msn.com
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