@Royal27, yes there is an outside border/fence on the outer side of these huntable areas, in South Africa, but no fenced seperating the partk from them. Animals from KNP can move freely from te park to and from Zim and Moz, from there no more explanation would be needed regarding the unfenced. SA has a KNP border separating it from towns etcetera, and that fence falls on the outside of these hunting blocks. A fenced area is only when it is completely surrounded by a fence and no animal can enter or exit through it.
Other boundaries with KNP are formed by natural riverbeds as well as just a road, as in the picture below. Left side is KNP, right side hunting concession, also a picture of the old KNP gate located in one of these exclusive hunting areas. There is also still some old fence posts standing around.
View attachment 49141
So the question is, with a hunting area ranging up to 200 000ha all together, unfenced with KNP, with the only fence on the SA side outside these blocks to keep wildlife out of towns, the does that somehow mean its fenced and animals do not roam free?
View attachment 49140
Getting back to the trees, it is unfortionately due to an over population of elephant...
Good morning fellow Hunters,
If we wander far enough, in any direction, anywhere on earth that we might hunt or fish upon, we will eventually come to a fence or, a natural geographic barrier or, an oceanic barrier.
The trick is to plan your outings to the best places you can afford to go to and fenced or not, that usually means some place that is large enough to get lost in without your hired Guide or perhaps these days, your GPS.
"Best" might also be defined as being so huge as to provide you with many days away from civilization without seeing fences during your activities, even though somewhere over the horizon there is a fence.
And, so vast that the game is breeding and living naturally as it would have on the same land a thousand years ago.
The human mind is such that when we say "fenced" our brain will always compartmentalize it into one complete thought picture, leaving us to see a relatively compressed place, that can be explored in a short time.
My brain is so stunted that I always visualize a fenced place as something I can see the boundaries of by climbing a tree or a hill in the middle of said plot.
In Aftica, some fenced land holdings are larger than many Counties are here in the USA.
And yet, I never hear anyone say:
"I would not hunt within such and such County because it is surrounded by roads, cattle ranches, barbed wire fences, soy bean fields, houses, gas stations, football stadiums and other noxious man made things."
Of course there also are some very small fenced hunting places in Africa where there is not enough land to support naturally self populating numbers of animals.
So, often times these land owners will offer "put and take" conditions for clients (not always admitting this unless specifically asked).
In other words and for instance, as a kudu bull is taken by a client hunter, the land owner calls a game farmer and orders another kudu to be delivered, before the next client arrives.
One of my friends here "won a Safari" at an SCI Banquet and his first trip to Africa was disappointing due to exactly this put-and-take thing as described.
For those who are happiest with going to a small put-and-take outfit, I have no complaint however, I am not interested in it for my own hunting and fishing efforts.
Alaska has no fenced hunting areas but there are nature's physical boundaries here.
I have had more than one person here say to me they would never hunt in Africa unless it was where there is no fence whatsoever.
Yet these same idealistic men hunt deer, elk, goat and bear on some of our very small islands (some are much smaller than a couple of private land holdings I have hunted in Namibia and South Africa).
They always retort with:
"the animals here can swim off these islands".
Really? When was the last time you were hunting any of these, especially a mountain goat, and a after spotting you trying to stalk within rifle range, it swam away in the sea?
Ladies and Gentilemen of The Jury, the deFENCE rests.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
