Hunting Angola The Long Awaited Reopening Announced

Hunting Angola The Long Awaited Reopening Announced

Lots of talk at the SCI convention about the long awaited reopening of hunting in Angola. Several outfitters and professional hunters have been actively involved to make this happen for a couple of years now.

I am here to say that the ink is till wet but the deal is finally done and hunting in Angola will begin in 2010. The predicted hunting season will be from August through October.

The hunting concessions in Angola apparently will operate much like the CAMPFIRE areas in Zimbabwe with a contract for 25 years. The hunting concession is located in the Southeastern corner of Angola, very near the border of Zambia and adjacent to the Luiana National Park in Angola which borders the Caprivi Strip of Namibia (see yellow campfire area in map below). The 2.5 million hectare hunting concession area will be divided among a few hunting outfitters, one of which is Roger Whittall Safaris based in Zimbabwe. The hunting concession is sandwiched between the Cuando (Kwando) River to the East and the Luiana River to the West.

I had a nice conversation with Butch Coaton from Zimbabwe, a well known PH and the son-in-law of Roger Whittall who has been spending some time in Angola surveying the game and preparing to hunt this area. He showed me some video footage of the hunting area on his computer and it looks very promising, I saw Elephants and Buffaloes in good numbers. In some areas the main river reaches out into many streams creating a vast swampy plain that can span 5 kilometers across perfect for Sitatunga and many other species (see the extensive list of species below).

Roger Whittall has been given permission to do promotional hunts in Angola for this year, his company has been allotted the Southern most part of the concession area bordering the Luiana National Park. Roger is now back in Zimbabwe from the SCI convention. He will be heading to Angola as soon as possible so he can to get things moving, as there is a lot to do to set up camps and infrastructure as interest for hunting in Angola is high. Butch will be in Angola during February and March and will in a better position to answer all of our questions when he gets back.

Quotas are yet to be finalized for each hunting area and outfitters are already working with CITES...

For Roger Whittall Safaris prices for Angola, click here, and for a close up map of the entire hunting concession area, click here.

Anyone interested can contact them about their openings for hunting in Angola.


Roger Whittall Safaris
Roger Whittall
www.humani.cc
roger@humani.cc

Professional Hunter
Butch Coaton
butchcoaton1@yahoo.com




Angola Hunting Areas


Angola Major Cities


Detailed Map of Angola
(click on thumbnail to enlarge map)


Africa



List of species offered in Angola by Roger Whittall Safaris
Aardwolf
Angolan Bush Duiker
Bat Eared Fox
Black Backed Jackal
Blue Wildebeest
Bushpig
Cape Buffalo
Common Reedbuck
Defassa Waterbuck
Giraffe
Hippopotamus
Impala
Lion
Livingston Eland
Oribi
Puku
Red Lechwe
Roan Antelope
Sable Antelope
Serval
Southern Greater Kudu
Spotted Hyena
Steenbok
Tsessebee
Warthog
Wildcat
Zambezi Sitatunga
Zebra

Dear Africa hunting,

I have it on good authority that there will be no hunting in Angola as yet.

Please would it be possible to confirm with the safari company with whom they made this agreement and if they are in possession of any government contracts to confirm this?

Respectfully,

Vaughn,
I am looking into it, sent out an email, as soon as I get a response will let you know. As you mentioned, no hunting yet, it is supposed to be for later in the year, from what I was told August through October.

Here is the reply that I got from Butch Coaton...
Hello Jerome - nothing signed yet, no hunting taking place yet - it is all taking a long time, as only Africa can... slow progress I am afraid. I will keep you in the loop.
Cheers for now
Butch
Vaughn, share with us any news that you might have. Thanks.

Do you have any contact details for the gov department handling the hunting areas?

thanks

Henry, I have not been in contact with any of the government officials in Angola.

I believe that hunting in Angola is regulated by the Ministry of Environment as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries.

Here below are a few links should you want to make some contacts.

Website of the Ministry of Agriculture (Ministério da Agricultura): www.minagri.gov.ao

Website of the Ministry of Environment (Ministério do Ambiente): www.minam.gov.ao

Here is the Portal of the Government of the Republic of Angola (Portal do Governo da República de Angola): www.governo.gov.ao

The website for the Embassy of Angola in Washington: www.angola.org

Website of Angola Chamber of Commerce and Industry: www.ccia.ebonet.net

thanks Jerome I will give it a go

I have just returned from a month in Zimbabwe with clients and travelled extensively around the country. One of my stops was a lunch with Roger Whittal at his Humani ranch. He is optimistic that hunting will take place in Angola for the 2011 season. He is still working on paperwork and assisting in writing the game laws for the country and sorting out CITES, gun permits, etc.
According to Roger, game seems to be abundant and trophy quality good but makes clear the first string of hunters in must be adventurers and explorers at heart. I am waiting for more info from Roger in order to start a list of potential hunters. As I receive more info I will be sure to share it.

Thanks for the update Tim.

Have we got any fresh news regarding this?

Thanks

Yes, here is the link to an update: Efforts to Open Hunting in Angola Have Been Abandoned

Thank you Jerome

And sorry.. I did not see the other.

What a shame...

It is a shame when you look at the land, the terrain, the water and all the great animals that could be there if people didn't mess it up....it's a crying shame. It should be a paridise for all the great plains animals and the Big 5. At least the Giant Sable might have a future yet!

Since my friend Shaun Buffee told me about this possibility I have been dreaming with hunting in such paradise.

Anyway, I would like to thank you those people who pushed this idea hard and expend time working to reopen this area.

Thanks

....perhaps they are still clearing landmines....or the Govt is not sure the areas applied for are 'safe zones' yet.

Would be extremely detrimental to Angola as a country - if even one foreign hunter or guide become a statistic / casualty due to the millions of mines that was deployed in Angola with the 'border war' - which only ended in the late 80's.

The multitude of combating parties / forces were scattered all over Angola at the time with tendancies to become more concentrated to the South later on in the conflict. Mines were used extensively by all guerilla-fighting units.

I know there were huge mine-clearing efforts since then, but no one can guarantee every single mine as been lifted - no one, imo.

Just a thought

only just found this thread, but i am surprised at the amount of animals reported in what was going to be the hunting area in angola, and the variety on the theoretical trophy list. i know it was a long time ago but i hunted west zambezi in zambia in 1990, and this area looks as if it is opposite the angolan hunting area. i was told there wasnt a great amount of game in the west zambezi, but there were some good trophies if you could find them. there was hardly any game at all there, and what was there was very, very wary. one day when looking at desert veldt had got boring our game scout took us into the park for some game viewing, but when we came accross some buffalo they ran before we saw them simply at the sound of the engine. we found out that certain elements from one of the angolan factions used vehicles to run down and poach the game, also swapo units were known to get their meat rations there as well. just to show you dont know who is working for you i had taken a .454 casull revolver with me, and we thought we would have some fun and let the tracker shoot it. he looked at us and picked it up in a pefect two handed grip and fired a shot perfectly, he looked at us and said "very nice" then gave it back! if you have ever shot a casull you know that is impressive. we also had air america fly low over our camp going into angola, and returning 30 to 40 mins later on most nights, going into supply whichever faction they backed. sorry think i have got side tracked, but if the angolans were hammering the game in zambia there cant have been any on there side. also after the war finished a friend of mine who ran a zambian safari company went into angola and flew over these areas to see if any game was left, they had to leave as it was still too dangerous, but he didnt see anything.

I have just returned from two months of hunting with clients in Zimbabwe. I had the opportunity to share a camp with Guy Whittal for a few days. Guy's father is Roger Whittal and is working closely with the Angolan government to re-open Angola to hunting. Guy indicated that the wheels are still turning, though slowly, and is optimistic that hunting will again be available in Angola in the future. Roger Whittal has secured a large area in Angola and has already established camps. I will post any updates on this as I receive them