Big Game Hunt at Roger Whittall Safaris

Thorkil on a dream hunting trip in Zimbabwe

Thorkil has just returned home after an unforgettable 10-day hunting and wilderness experience with our long-standing partner Roger Whittall Safaris in southeastern Zimbabwe.

Thorkil describes the experience in his own words:

“I am on my way home after an unforgettable 10-day hunting and wilderness experience with Roger Whittall Safaris in southeastern Zimbabwe.

The hunting area is part of the privately owned Savé Valley Conservancy, which covers an area larger than the Danish island of Funen. There are no internal fences, and the wildlife can move freely across vast areas. In addition to the Big Five – elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard – the conservancy is home to an impressive population of the many different species collectively referred to as plains game.

Hunting, particularly of the large African game species, may be considered controversial by some. However, the revenue generated from carefully controlled trophy hunting of a limited number of old male animals is also an important part of financing conservation and wildlife management in the area. On Roger Whittall’s property alone, around 40 rangers are employed, among other things, in anti-poaching efforts.

During the hunt, I was fortunate to take buffalo, eland, nyala, bushbuck and impala – all excellent trophies – as well as a zebra.

I also took a non-trophy female elephant as part of the necessary population management in the area.

Across the entire Savé Valley Conservancy, the elephant population is estimated at around 4,000 animals, which exceeds the number the area can sustainably support in the long term. As part of the overall wildlife management programme, quotas and population-control targets are therefore set for the individual areas when the population of a species becomes too large.

The elephant hunt became one of the absolute highlights of the trip. Getting to within just 20–30 metres of these enormous animals in dense vegetation was both intense and fascinating.

This was not a trophy hunt, and I brought neither tusks nor anything else home with me – only photos, videos and an experience of a lifetime. The elephant was butchered on site, and the meat was subsequently distributed to an estimated 500 people in the local community.”

A fantastic account from one of Africa’s great and truly authentic wilderness areas.