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I mentioned a bongo hunt in another thread (https://www.africahunting.com/threads/cameroon-bongo-sitatunga-hunt-report.10979/) and said that it was the subject of an article in this month's issue of Safari, the SCI magazine. I was asked to post some pictures, so they are below. I had mentioned in yet another thread that this was the most difficult hunt I had ever done, all of which is described in the article.
Forestry companies have logged many of the high canopy trees in the jungle. The result is that sunshine reaches the forest floor, causing a profusion of undergrowth to spring up. Bongo apparently like this, but it makes walking extremely difficult. Visibility is rarely more than 10-15 feet.
I believe that in CAR bongo are often hunted from machans. That doesn't seem to be the case in Cameroon, where they use pygmy (and taller) trackers, each of whom comes with his own dog. The dogs don't seem to be scent hounds at all - once a track is found, the pygmies follow it, generally holding on to the dogs, at least until they believe the bongo is close. The dog's only job is to hold the bongo long enough for you to get a shot into it. The dogs - which are fearless from what I can tell - take advantage of the fact that the bongo is an aggressive animal, and will stay and try to fight the dogs, at least for a short while. A sitatunga would just run from the dogs and you'd never catch up.
All of the dogs seem to suffer from tick bites, and most have lost all or portions of ears to ticks. They may not look like much, but they work hard!
Forestry companies have logged many of the high canopy trees in the jungle. The result is that sunshine reaches the forest floor, causing a profusion of undergrowth to spring up. Bongo apparently like this, but it makes walking extremely difficult. Visibility is rarely more than 10-15 feet.
I believe that in CAR bongo are often hunted from machans. That doesn't seem to be the case in Cameroon, where they use pygmy (and taller) trackers, each of whom comes with his own dog. The dogs don't seem to be scent hounds at all - once a track is found, the pygmies follow it, generally holding on to the dogs, at least until they believe the bongo is close. The dog's only job is to hold the bongo long enough for you to get a shot into it. The dogs - which are fearless from what I can tell - take advantage of the fact that the bongo is an aggressive animal, and will stay and try to fight the dogs, at least for a short while. A sitatunga would just run from the dogs and you'd never catch up.
All of the dogs seem to suffer from tick bites, and most have lost all or portions of ears to ticks. They may not look like much, but they work hard!
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