Alan Bunn

e)VILLAGERS in Tsholotsho district, Matabeleland North have expressed concern over the ballooning population of lions, hyenas, and jackals killing their livestock.They said the population of elephants was also on the increase and they were destroying their crops.This emerged during an engagement meeting between Environmental, Climate Change, and Wildlife Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu and the Sipepa community last Friday.Minister Ndlovu holds annual community engagement meetings on environment, forestry, and wildlife to find out the challenges facing communities.Cases of human-wildlife conflict are on the increase across the country and the Government is working on a basket of measures to address the problem.Climate change-induced…

7 January 2024The remains of a nine-year-old Namibian boy snatched by a crocodile on the Angolan side of the Okavango River on Friday morning were found on Sunday.Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda reported that the crocodile was killed on Sunday – two days after it had caught the boy about 20 kilometers east of Rundu.The victim was visiting his grandmother in Angola and was attacked by a crocodile while at the river with other children, at around 08h00 on Friday.Muyunda reported: “The boy was caught on Friday, the search for the body started and the team…

A six-year-old project to return giant tortoises to the wild in Madagascar could result in thousands of the 350kg megaherbivores re-populating the island for the first time in 600 years. The first group of Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) were brought in from the Seychelles in 2018, and have been reproducing on their own since. Ecologist Grant Joseph explains how reintroducing this tortoise to areas degraded by cattle grazing will help restore the island’s forests, grassy woodlands, and shrublands of the past. It could also help prevent devastating forest fires in the future. What is the Aldabra giant tortoise and…

“So, (Nigerian) women cherish dog meat much more than men nowadays,” Mr. Eniang said, adding that “every woman wants smooth skin”.

The trees are historically protected from leaf-eating animals by a species of ant that nests in the trees’ bulbous thorns. In return for their home, the ants ferociously defend the trees from gigantic plant eaters, like elephants, giraffes, and other herbivores—an arrangement ecologists call mutualism.

IVF breakthrough could revive nearly extinct rhino speciesNajin (background) and her offspring Fatu, are the last two northern white rhinos left on the planet.Scientists have carried out the first successful in vitro fertilization of a southern white rhino, a major breakthrough that could pave the way to saving its highly endangered northern cousin.Only two female northern white rhinos remain in existence but neither is capable of carrying a pregnancy to term.To save the functionally extinct species, researchers from the scientific consortium Biorescue are attempting to implant a lab-grown northern white rhino embryo in a southern surrogate.The ambitious reproduction program is…

June 24, 2023 The girlfriend of a dentist convicted of murdering his wife on an African safari was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison for being an accessory to the crime during a hearing where relatives of the slain woman told her she had destroyed their family. Ana Rudolph, daughter of 57-year-old victim Bianca Rudolph, said that Lori Milliron, 65, had “plotted to eliminate” her mother. “Lori, you have taken my parents,” Rudolph said directly to Milliron, but “despite everything you have done you will never take my soul. This might be difficult to understand … because you don’t have one.” Milliron was…

I am often asked what caliber rifle to take on an African plains game hunt. My response is usually, “What do you have in your gun case now”? The reason I ask that is because almost everyone already has a .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, etc.

The basic design for a Dangerous Game Rifle (DGR) was finalized by English gun makers such as Holland and Holland, Rigby, Jeffrey, et al. before the start of WWI. Drawing on the experiences of big game hunters in their African colonies and using the new smokeless propellant, Cordite, these custom gun smiths could now build relatively light weight rifles that surpassed the stopping power of the earlier 4 to 10 gauge black powder rifles.

In part one of this article, several issues associated with barrels and iron front sights were discussed at length.  Now let’s look at one of the other two traditional parts of a firearm; the lock or, in modern terms, the receiver.  I will talk about some ideas for their possible refinement, and try to examine every feature in detail.  If there is anything I have overlooked or if you know of any new products or ideas we should know about I would love to hear additional thoughts from our readers After years of research and worldwide combat experience, Paul Mauser…