ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In an attempt to be creative and think a little laterally, we decided to get Tamlyn a Lioness for her birthday, the only catch was that Tamlyn had to travel to the Kalahari and hunt it herself.

Well, as usual Tamlyn accepted the challenge, packed her 300 Win-Mag and off we went. While a minimum caliber of a .375 is usually the minimum caliber when dangerous game hunting, Lions are classified as “soft animals” and a well-placed bullet from any thirty-caliber rifle will get the job done.

After a six-hour drive from Pretoria in South Africa, we arrived at the hunting lodge and met the African outfitter. The facilities were great and the cuisine even better.

Hunting a Lion in the Kalahari is done following traditional hunting methods, on foot following fresh tracks. The hunting concession was 18 000 acres and was filled with plains game, Cape Buffalo and exotic species such as Sable and Roan. There were numerous Lions in the area.

There are numerous debates comparing “canned” Lion hunting to hunting wild Lions in places like Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. While the SA government has indicated that hunting Lion using this method will no longer be allowed, this practice continues, and these trophies are not exportable to the US, UE and Australia.

Be that as it may, it was a great hunt and after “nicking” a lioness, Tamlyn had her work cut out with a three hour “follow up”. On thus hunting safari, we also managed to secure a trophy male Lion, and tiny ten antelope such as Steenbok and Duiker.

While Lion hunting in South Africa is still a much-debated topic, the reality is that these hunting safaris are adrenaline packed and action filled from the moment you arrive. Many foreign hunters following these practices are now having the Lion skulls replicated by 3-D printing, or taxidermists are using the photographic images and rebuilding the entire trophy.