Baboon hunting

[Sarg]

To add, I’m really into them actually, also Pigs, Hyenas (plus lots of others lol) but now must have so much paperwork for any Primate or Cat.

I have lost a lot of my best Cat, Monkey & Baboon skulls before I got a bit smarter & do more research & paperwork.

I didn’t realise all the different Species & Subspecies back in the day, didn’t know a Grey Footed Chacma from a Anubis !

Now a Gelada from a Hamadryas means something & different but similar is the awesome Mandrill !

I have 3 different Subspecies here & the South African Chacma from Limpopo area (both sides of the border) seem way larger than the Namibian Chacma, then I leant the subspecies, more obvious when going to Kenya & seeing Olive Baboon a few days later.

Would love a chest mounted set of them teeth exposed that didn’t look cheesy but have yet to see one ?

The bigger guy next to a good size Leopard.

 

[buck wild]

@Sarg Man. it's hard getting baboons' skulls that grease-free. Excellent job. Did you go with the peroxide bleach method, or paint?

 

[Sarg]

Thank you.
As you might know Bears, Pigs & Monkeys have greasy skulls.

I try to do all mine if possible, unless I have hunters waiting.

I cut all meat off, simmer till all gristle, meat is easily removed, keep it moist, it looks white even then but we have near unlimited Technical Grade 30-50 percent Peroxide from the farms in SA so I fully immerse when there, if the grease appears again, I resimmer wash & repeat, a tip I use if doing small skulls & lots is a Power Ball washing cube for Dish washers dropped in.

I put far too much work into my personal skulls & it’s not economically sound for a full time taxidermist ?

Back home I only have limited supply of 50 Percent Peroxide & with new rules it will be hard to Re supply, Don’t let blood soak in or skull dry, all meat off, simmer water blast (big Skulls) keep wet, then into tray, paint 50 % Peroxide on & this is normally done, not pigs, bears & monkey but only Pigs here lol

Some of my Pigs jaws, have a few full skulls to but again some need a redo.

Sorry if I have pulled this thread off track.
Moderators feel free to remove if so ?

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Thank you.
As you might know Bears, Pigs & Monkeys have greasy skulls.

I try to do all mine if possible, unless I have hunters waiting.

I cut all meat off, simmer till all gristle, meat is easily removed, keep it moist, it looks white even then but we have near unlimited Technical Grade 30-50 percent Peroxide from the farms in SA so I fully immerse when there, if the grease appears again, I resumed wash & repeat, a tip I use if doing small skulls & lots is a Power Ball washing cube for Dish washers dropped in.

I put far too much work into my personal skulls & it’s not economically sound for a full time taxidermist ?

Back home I only have limited supply of 50 Percent Peroxide & with new rules it will be hard to Re supply, Don’t let blood soak in or skull dry, all meat off, simmer water blast (big Skulls) keep wet, then into tray, paint 50 % Peroxide on & this is normally done, not pigs, bears & monkey but only Pigs here lol

Some of my Pigs jaws, have a few full skulls to but again some need a redo.

View attachment 667712

Sorry if I have pulled this thread off track.
Moderators feel free to remove if so ?

Cool. Some wicked cutters on those

 

[Nyati]

Shot a few from a helicopter with a shotgun.

Landowner wanted to get rid of them.

Kept the largest for a euro-mount

 

[Certus]

last hunt the PH showed me the damage they can do and he had to wrap his game cameras with barbed wire to protect them. had no luck last time so will try again in 38 days but wife said do not have one sent home! would be a cool euro and I have one spot on the wall for him

What you need to do is get one full body mounted in a manner that can be put beside the toilet and hold a wooden roller in both its hands for the toilet paper to be placed on. Then gift this to your wife as a surprise present.

 

[Fatback]

This skull is from my 2022, Namibia baboon. They make a great euro in my opinion. I have another coming from last year’s hunt.

 

[dogcat1]

Everytime we go to Africa, we hunt baboons! Great fun!

 

[Hyde Hunter]

What you need to do is get one full body mounted in a manner that can be put beside the toilet and hold a wooden roller in both its hands for the toilet paper to be placed on. Then gift this to your wife as a surprise present.

if I was to do that by the time she and her attorney got done with me my trips to Africa would be over for life and my guns would be gone!

 

[Hunt anything]

Does any have a really good baboon mount? Mine is just okay, the nasal ridges are missing and the hair is flat. The only African mount that I’m not really completely satisfied with.

 

[Kevin375]

Some very nice photos and stories about this animals. Thank you for the sharing.

I know a PH who charged baboons, just because he was scaried to see people who wanted to hunt only this animal, thus he would not get a lot of money at the end of the safari. But when he knew me, he told me to shoot them on sight for free !

Another PH told me to kill all of them. He told me he only charged $100 for the hunter who wants to make a full body mount, because it's a lot of work to skin such animal, and his worker hated to do it.
Once, I went into his farm to hunt mainly baboons. He told me he had a tamed leopard in the past and he had kept this animal a long time. He shot plenty of baboons to feed it and he hated these monkeys. At the end of the trip, he laughed and said : " Baboons are probably thinking there is a new leopard to feed in the cage ! ". For sure, we were behind them quite a lot during that stay, and several of them died !


When I hunted in the Caprivi the second time, there was only 5 baboons on quota in that conservancy, and because I was the last client of the season, I shot the 2 last baboons that remain on the permit.
Baboons were everywhere and not very wild as long as we stayed in the car. The tracker and the ranger didn't like them at all and at the end of the trip, we saw a big male that caught a baby warthog while we were driving around.
Both shouted to stop the car and one told me to shoot that "f*cker", but no quota left so I didn't even rise my rifle.

So they ran toward the baboon and I did the same. The animal left his pray and it ran away in the plain, but not so fast. If I was allowed to shoot it, I think its chance were very low ! But the baby warthog was already dead.

I started to speak with the ranger who was pretty upset against all these baboons. Then, I told him for joking to ask some own use permits for the next season, and to justify it, I said baboons will be useful to feed dogs from the village close by. And he replied me : "It is probably what I will do...we have far too much of them ! " But I don't know if some own use baboon permits were issued after that trip ?

Many people who hunted in the Western africa told me that natives loves to eat baboons, but in Namibia, they mainly refused to eat this animal. I joked many times with trackers or workers, but whatever their tribe : Damara, Bushman, Kavango, Herero, Tswana...they all refused to eat baboons.
The only people I met, and who eat baboons, were workers coming from Angola and known as "Wambo". These people works very often as woodcutter in farms and they are hard workers.

In my family, I had a great uncle in law who was teacher, and his sister (who was also teacher) worked a bit in the Dahomey (Benin). In the 50's, almost everything was possible, and she brought back to her country a young baby baboon named "Boubou". But with time, the animal who was a male became naughty and agressive, and they almost wanted to kill it for safety reason. But a great-grand-mother to me, and who lived in the south wanted the animal. She used to live in a big open area with many olive trees all around and no neighbours. So the animal was free to roam in the countryside, but definitely not a good animal to have because of its behaviour. It could be very agressive ! The animal died because he ate washing powder.

About taxidermy, I have only kept the skull of my first one. First, I wanted to make a full body mount, but it was very expensive and I gave up.
I have seen many full body mounts but most of them were average, or even pretty bad. Like cats, it's difficult to give them "a new life". This one in Africa was not so good from my liking.