Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
General
Big Game Shooting, volume 1 (of 2)
Phillipps-Wolley, Clive
Game and game-birds; Hunting
The Steinbuck (Swahili name, ‘Ishah’) is better known to some sportsmen
as the ‘grass antelope.’ It is more plentiful at Kilimanjaro than
elsewhere, though I have seen a good many all along the caravan route,
wherever it passes through open grass country, between Mombasa and Nzoi
in Ukambani. This little antelope is the smallest found in the open
plain. It is a stupid little beast, and requires very little stalking
to outwit it. It will often stand gazing at anyone who approaches,
and allow him to walk up to within 100 yards of it. I once witnessed
a most interesting sight in which one of these little bucks played
an important part. It was being hunted by two cheetahs (hunting
leopards). This occurred on the low hills west of Machako’s. As I was
walking along the side of a steep hill, I saw four cheetahs cross a
dry watercourse at the bottom and ascend half-way up the side of the
opposite hill, when they lay down and began gambolling like kittens.
About half-way between the top of the hill and the cheetahs was a pile
of huge rocky boulders, and thinking that they would in all probability
make for these, and lie up in the shade of them during the heat of the
day, I hurried round, making a wide circuit, to the back of the hill.
On looking down from the top I had the satisfaction of seeing the
cheetahs still in the same place, and gained the boulders without any
difficulty. My gun-bearer and I then took up our position under a small
thorn-tree, which was growing in a crevice of the largest boulder. As
this afforded us a certain amount of shade, we awaited events there,
hoping that the cheetahs would come in our direction when it became too
hot for them in the open. In about half an hour, during which time they
still continued to play and roll about, I noticed that their attitude
suddenly changed. All four stood up and gazed fixedly in my direction,
and I feared that an eddy in the wind had caused them to scent us; but
on having a look at them with my binoculars I was delighted to see
that they were not looking directly at me, but rather to the left of
me, and on turning my head I saw a steinbuck quietly feeding some 150
yards off to my left, on the same level as myself. I then turned my
attention to the cheetahs, which for a short time stood all together,
and I concluded, from the difference in their size, that there was one
male and three females. Only two of them, however, took up the hunt,
the male and a female. These advanced by short rushes, and not by a
stealthy crawl like a couple of lions which I saw stalking some elands,
described elsewhere, neither did they both advance at the same time;
the male always took the lead, and after each rush, in a crouching
position, squatted down and waited until the female saw her opportunity
to get up level with him. In this manner they approached within 160
yards of the steinbuck (it struck me they could have easily got
considerably nearer) when they both ran in, and were within 100 yards
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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