Hi folks, thanks for your interest, much appreciated.
OK, so I think it's best to deal with John.d.m.'s comments first although I'm assuming that a PAC hunt means problem animal cull?
So, what is a problem animal? Well, that's easy, it's an animal that is specified as such by the Namibian Govt's Dept of Nature Game and Conservation - not me, not the farmer, not the outfitter - we can't class any animal as such, only the Govt agency that deals with issuing Cities certification and hunting permits.
So what is a problem animal - well, it's illegal to keep preditors on a farm, not that you'd want them clearly as they eat their way through sheep, goats and cattle at an alarming rate! So, if you have cheetah on a cattle farm, it's not always a drama as they tend not to attack them, but that's not true of lion, leopard and hyaena. Similarly, sometimes we get problem buffalo and elephant - in fact we have a problem elephant to deal with right now, the third such creature this season unfortunately, and each of these was responsible for killing humans - the local black fella's have their own territories and the net revenue from any animals shot in these area's go directly to the locals - so, a problem elephant or buff is generally one that's either already killed or is posing such a threat and hasn't left the area despite the best efforts of the locals.
ats and Hyaena though, that's a different story - here's a picture for you, I'll tell you the story afterwards:
Quite a pussy huh, well this 83kg leopard was shot within 200 metres of this guys farm house - it had eaten his dogs, several sheep, 3 new Brahman calfs and had attempted to get into the house where Jassie (pictured) and his wife and two young children were sleeping. A medicinal does of .458 resolved this particular problem, but a problem out there, and this farm is about 36km from the nearest small town, is very different to a problem in the UK - in fact, lets just say that if we had 83kg cats knocking on our back doors of an evening, we'd have a different view of them to the rose-tinted bs that many of the 'Nature' channels would have us believe!
As I understand it, in 2006 there were 23 leopards officially shot under licence by trophy hunters in the whole of Africa - yet in the same year, over 50 were shot by farmers in the Outjo region of Namibia, all had been officially classed as problems - and represented a serious threat to human life. I hope that explains how they are categorised.
As for time scales - again, if you were a cattle farmer in Namibia (and it's classed as being semi-desert so arable farming isn't an option for 90% of the country) and you had a large preditor eating your stock, then you'd want it gone asap, and that's the case here too. Right now, the problem leopard that we are dealing with are actively eating the farmers stock and the Nature Conservation have aproved these as problems so hunters can come in and shoot them legally and export the trophy once it's been prepared. Certainly the farmer will receive the lion's share (joke - geddit) of the money for the animal, but the more stock he looses, the worse off he'll become, so a quick resolution is what's best all round!
The way that it works is this. To hunt anything in Namibia you must be escorted by a certified 'Professional Hunter' and that person charges a day rate for his or her time. This covers your accomodation, food and so on, together with the time of the PH. There is a trophy fee which goes to the farmer although generally the farmer and PH split this too. We take a modest % for our time and that's pretty much it!
Problem animals tend to come and go, but there's always some sort of preditor activity as my region boarders the Etosha National Park - so imagine something like Woburn Wild Animal Kingdom, except there are no internal fences and it's 110km x 65km wide and boardered on all sides by farmland, separated by a basic ire fence. The Etosha National Park is said to be the largest natural and un-spoilt peice of real estate in the whole of Africa, and it's full of game - but, lions and leopard, just like us, take the line of least resistance. So certainly, Springbok tastes great to a lion, but that means lots of running around and so on, whereas every farm has cattle, sheep and domestic animals, most of which can be caught easily in their compounds, and lions, like foxes, will go through a herd and kill everything in one hit, even if it's not going to eat it, so if you'r a cattle farmer and you get a visit from lions, not only can you not insure against this, if you don't stop the problem, you'll be out of the farming business pretty quickly!
We can't sell problem animal hunts in advance, life isn't like that, although I was in Namibia during most f June and we shot 7 lion and 8 Hyeana while I was there - all problem animals.
So, A problem animal is shot ASAP - there isn't really another option unless they get the hint (if a hunter misses and frightens it) and move off to another area - in some cases they force their way through the fences at night, eat their fill and return to the National Park the next day. These animals are also problems but can only be shot on farmland (there's no chasing them over the boarder!)
Do we leave problem animals in place? Well, the farmer looks upon the problem animal as a revenue source, so if he's looking to receive circa £2000 back for the animal, but it's eaten 5 calfs at £400 each, then it's break even. Sheep are not such a problem, and what generally happens where possible is the farmer starts shooting bait which is hung from trees ect to keep the preditor away from his stock - baboon / warthog / donkey are usually used. It's basic ecconomics to the farmer - the quicker a hunter can be found the better, but if no hunter is found then generally the farmer will loose patience and shoot it himself. Generally we offer any problem animals to hunts already in country first, and that's the case everywhere, but urgency is the key!
Prices then - OK, so a leopard will cost you circa £2500 and a lion £8000, in addition you will be paying a ballpark of £200 / day for your PH and preditor hunts such as these are generally over a minimum of 10-14 days - these animals will not just roll over for you and must be stalked and hunted hard!
In addition to lion and leopard, we also promote Outcast Hunting - hunting the Hyaena packs and Jackal that are causing such a problem this season - next year will be worse - besides, the jackal pelt is stunning and hyaena hunting is hard, dangerous, challenging and huge fun - take a look at the trophy gallery on my site at
http://www.thehuntingagency.com/default.asp?ID=4 and take a look for yourself!
I hope that goes some way to explain what we mean by problem animals, and I know how hard it is to believe how many preitors there are in Namibia in the face of natural history programmes telling us that the end of the world is coming - it is, but there's so many of them that you simply wouldn't believe it!
Tell you what, I've got some Namibian PH's coming over in Feb 09 for a visit and we'll be holding get togethers for UK stalkers to meet them and hear for themselves how it really is. We have a couple of venues sorted so far, one in Somerset and another in Gloucestershire so if you'd like to come alone, meet me and them then you'll be very welcome - if you're reading this in other area's of the UK and know of a venue and interest in your area, please feel free to contact me and we'll set something up!
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Roo
The Hunting Agency
PS - if it helps, I will gladly come over with any of you guys who may be interested in going to Namibia game hunting - can't say fairer than that can I!