Hunting The Situatunga

The hunting of the spiral horned antelopes is a noble pursuit of magnificent creatures regardless of the species, country or the environment. They're all incredible in their own way.

- Steve Ahrenberg

The hunting of the spiral horned antelopes is a noble pursuit of magnificent creatures regardless of the species, country or the environment. They're all incredible in their own way. Whether their specific uniqueness comes from colouration, horn configuration or perhaps their endemic environment, they're all special to me. Given the choice to go back and hunt any of one them a second time, the decision might prove difficult.

By starting with the simple process of elimination, I will remove all the kudu, bushbuck and nyala. They are all fantastic hunts and spectacular trophies in their own right but are normally considered secondary animals on most safaris I've done. I’m sure that there are collectors who may travel to remote and difficult places to take one, but for the most part they are an opportunistic pickup on a larger safari bag.

The Elands. As is the case for the kudu and the bushbuck, eland hunting for Cape, Livingstone's and Patterson's (East African) are typically opportunistic hunts. However, that wouldn't hold true for the Lord Derby's eland. It’s most always the primary animal or, at worst, the second of a major split bag trophy hunt. For this reason I will leave the LDE in the running.

Typically, an LDE hunt is a purely classical tracking affair. The legendary walking ability of the LDE isn't something of urban legend. It is real. It is a worthy opponent and every single LDE is an earned one. My LDE hunt in the Central African Republic was five days on track of the same herd. Every morning, we picked up where we left off the evening before. We tracked them the entire day, perhaps hearing their hooves or getting a few fleeting glimpses of these elusive giants. They don’t really even seem to slow when they feed as they move through a stand of