Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
“What I would have to say about Africa - as I was going to the airport it occurred to me that
in our life that we lead in the United States there are some things that are just unthinkable either
unthinkably bad or unthinkably gruesome or unthinkably we just can't imagine that they would
happen. In Africa I think there is almost nothing that is unthinkable. The violence that surrounds
the game, the societies, the political interactions, things that we would not imagine could
happen, happen.”
Do you think the African human culture reflects much animal culture or are there the
lingering effects of this?
“It seems to be. I mean it truly is a different world and it is not that people are immune to
tragedy or are not afraid of tragedy, but it is just that they know that all sorts of things can
happen that probably would not happen in other environments. They happen often enough to
stand out. I think that is part of what Hemingway really describes in many of his topics about
Africa. It is just such a different world. Even when nothing bad happens, there is always
something bad [that will] happen, or the possibility of something bad happening. Bad things
can happen all over the world but they just don't seem quite so immediate and as real as they
do in Africa. As you know, I have been in Africa a lot in the past and there is enormous
difference, I found, in being inside that land rover and being outside the land rover. Inside the
land rover it is, rightly or wrongly, a tremendously relaxing situation; outside the land rover it
is a different story.”
Things change so rapidly and you can be in a peaceful environment and then something is
charging you very quickly.
“I think that is exactly right and that sensation is one that focuses your attention. Hunting in
America is a little bit different. I mean people have been killed by whitetail deer but not very
many of them. Even if you are not hunting dangerous game, the environment itself is
dangerous.”
Now we are going on a trip that largely the hunting is stalking, not so much ambushing. Do
you have any sort of favorite ways that you would like to hunt, stalking vs. ambushing,
obviously tree stands or looking for deer, and your thoughts about that?
“Again, I would have to say that I don't consider myself an expert on those kinds of hunting.
The kinds of hunting that I have done have not involved stalking deer, actually more commonly
we are waiting in an area for deer, sort of ambushing. Now that ambush may spread out over
300 to 400 yards and that is hunting in an area where there is a big open area. It is a little bit
different story than being in thorn bush. I have not hunted in thorn bush but I have been in thorn
bush. Some of it depends upon the animals themselves. It is extraordinarily difficult to stalk
close to whitetail bucks that know what they are doing. A mature whitetail buck is very
difficult to get up on. That is why most of them that are killed not by stalking but by waiting for
them to come into your range. In Africa the spaces are such and the need to cover territory is
such that you have to do some stalking and, honestly, I am kind of looking forward to that. I
think it will be a new skill for me anyway. I have tried to do it before, particularly when I was
bow hunting, but that is hard to do with whitetail deer.”
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