Dangerous species of plains game?

[mark-hunter]

I know of a hunter who came to pick up a steinbock, shot and wounded.
Steinbock jumped and punched through both of his horns into the hunter's wrist. Pass through!
So, each animal can be aggressive.

What the experienced PH and hunters consider specifically aggressive plains game when wounded? Or not wounded, but still aggressive?

 

[BRICKBURN]

Bushbuck and Gemsbok.
I had a Gemsbok try and gore me and without all the bush in the way it would have succeeded.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Since we use dogs extensively on wounded animals, I'll go by which ones are a danger to them.
Bushbuck, Gemsbuck, Warthog, Nyala, Zebra, Bushpig, Baboon can all finish the job.

Dog needs to be respectful of his quarry and not overly aggressive. ( Wants to bite at the hind quarters of the bayed animal.) Then you can almost put them on any of the abovementioned animals.

Very nice thread!

 

[mark-hunter]

My bushbuck in Zimbabwe tried very hard to gore the dogs. He was badly wounded, was not able to stand up, and yet he was trying to gore the dogs!

 

[spike.t]

The above mentioned...and sable....had a waterbuck come when walking up slowly to it when it was down...I would say basically if it has horns or teeth like warthog etc that can open you like a razor blade ...then all have the potential to do you damage if you get too casual with them.....

 

[Kevin375]

I think the most agressive antelopes are gemsboks, bushbucks and sables. They don't need to be wounded to fight. It doesn't really concern hunters (except when the animal is cornered), but when dogs are involved, they usually don't flee their attacker. I remember some dogs passionated about hunting that didn't listen their owners and they bayed gemsboks very easily. It's quite impressive to hear a gemsbok throwing its big swords forward in the thick bush, trying to impale the dog.

Speaking about wounded games, I think most animals could fight back their attackers. It depends the wound and maybe also the animal. I think some are by nature more agresssive than others.
In europe, I know someone who was charged by a roe deer, while for many people, this animal seems absolutely harmless even wounded.
Every animals wounded should be approached cautiously but in addition to the three animals mentionned, I heard waterbuck, warthog and wildebeest might also charge when they are wounded.

 

[mrpoindexter]

There is a video of a sable taking on two rhinos in a zoo. Certainly they are willing to fight even when not wounded and don’t seem to back down when they are in the mood.

 

[Kevin375]

Doctor Kevin Robertson said sables are the aristocrates of the bush, and they don't like to mix with others species in their natural habitat. In a zoo, where animals are forced to live with each others, there are more risk of fighting.

I was also very surprised to see this video with a kudu and a giraffe.

 

[BeeMaa]

The above mentioned...and sable....had a waterbuck come when walking up slowly to it when it was down...I would say basically if it has horns or teeth like warthog etc that can open you like a razor blade ...then all have the potential to do you damage if you get too casual with them.....

Agreed.

Bushbuck and oryx (gemsbok) would be at the top of my list with sable close behind. These are also the animals that are most often poached because they will stand and fight the poachers dogs to eventually be stabbed by the poachers spears. Most other antelope run away from the dogs.

 

[mark-hunter]

As per concensus till now, bushbuck and oryx are in the lead in this competition.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Sable
Gemsbok
Bushpig
Warthog

 

[Odinsraven]

Was charged by a warthog about 20 min after my PH asked had I ever been.

 

[ThinusS]

I have had close shaves with wounded gemsbok, warthog and nyala. A tracker of mine was treed by a wounded bushbuck.
But at close range, just about any game animal can be dangerous, a vet I know was stabbed in the arm by an impala ram and I know of hunters who were injured by black wildebeest and even a common duiker.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I took a nice springbuck ram early in the morning and my PH asked if I was interested in a very nice breeding bull gemsbuck that had escaped five years earlier into a large area for sheep farming. "He's still got a tag in his ear so maybe you don't want that. I've been bringing at least one client per season for him but he's a wily bugger and it's very brushy. For whatever reason the bull is not interested in going back to the herd. Maybe he's gay?" Sure, why not. We're already here and I'm not interested in the cape, just a skull. That one is just wasting range in a drought. Six of us - me, PH, our tracker, the property owner, and two farm hands - scoured that section for several hours and all we did was push the bull around. Got too hot and a long drive to the lodge so we packed it in.

As we hit the highway PH told me about a client who harvested a cow from a pair of gemsbuck that had similarly escaped on another section. "Is the other one still there?" "Probably. Are you interested?" "I'm mostly interested in kudu and it and gemsbuck are all that's left on the list. So may as well take her if we're here." He called the owner and we turned around. As we drove through the gate I spotted her face looking at us from an acacia thicket close by. But she evaporated before the owner arrived. He and our tracker climbed to the top of a rocky point while Glen and I went to the back. The owner spotted the cow running our direction. We positioned ourselves next to a deep ravine and waited. "They're a desert animal and don't negotiate canyons well. She should turn and run across that plain to our left." The cow came into sight over a ridge about three hundred yards from us and continued running into a grove of acacia. She was still headed for us so up went the sticks and I got ready. I could see her white face bobbing as she galloped. She got closer and closer. "Damn! She's not going to turn!" I got off the sticks about the time she broke through the thicket less than thirty yards from us. I expected her to stop and turn when she saw us. Nope! We were standing in the open and that cow was looking right at us ... and coming strait for us. I shot and Glen said "You got her." But she kept coming and I cycled the Springfield. Then shot her again as she ran by at twelve paces. Two more strides and she piled up in the rocks on the edge of the ravine. "Great shooting but maybe think about letting them fall over." I had heard at the lodge about a client two years earlier almost speared by a "dead" gemsbuck that suddenly came back to life. And I'd seen videos of gemsbuck taking on lions. They are dangerous. Twelve yards was just too close to wait and see what happens. Glen agreed. Incoming at that range you shoot till it's down. Both shots hit her in the heart. She'd obviously been taking on something as her face was torn up. Possibly Cape leopard? Maybe it's why she was so cranky. Turns out even if she'd been able to find her way back to the herd she was no use for managing it. That cow's horns had two inches of compression rings and only two front teeth left. She was well past making babies. Good to get her out of there.

 

[Philip Glass]

Doctor Kevin Robertson said sables are the aristocrates of the bush, and they don't like to mix with others species in their natural habitat. In a zoo, where animals are forced to live with each others, there are more risk of fighting.

I was also very surprised to see this video with a kudu and a giraffe.

Hormones