The Southern Africa (SA) HOG SLAM

Tony Silva, May 2010

Dr Terry Witzu, June 2009

In the Southern African countries of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique there are two indigenous wild pig species. Most hog hunters should know these to be the warthog and the bushpig.

Further North in the equatorial belt the red river hog replaces the bushpig and the giant forest hog also occurs in these rain forests. Along the the Mediterranean coast of North Africa the Barbary boar (similar to the European boar) represents the wild pigs there.

In the Eastern Cape of South Africa both the warthog and bushpig occur in relatively good numbers. When considering a safari to Blaauwkrantz the Southern Africa Hog Slam is a goal that all hog hunters should try for, given that hunting these two species is relatively cheap as compared to a current guided safari in Central and East African Countries such as Central African Republic, Cameroon, Benin, Tanzania and Ethiopia where legal trophy hog hunting is still possible but at a hefty price.

Bushpigs are a challenge in themselves (just read all the other blog entries) and the thing with warthogs is to try find a monster boar (10 inch tusks or more). Finding a really big warthog takes a lot of luck , of course location and what is also really important is the time of the year. From end of April until end of June the big warthog boars come out of hiding and start getting restless as they start marking territories and scouting for sows that may be on heat. That eerie sound of a big warthog boar chomping on his tusks is a really strange and exciting sound...

At Blaauwkrantz we have had a few fortunate hunters who have completed the SA Hog Slam and note ably the following clients have done it on a single safari :

1. Danny Hicks (May 2007)

2. Dr. John Tucker (May 2008)

3. Val Nicholls (May 2009)

4. Dr. Terry Witzu (June 2009)

5. Dr. Chad Nelson (April 2010)

6. Tony Silva (May 2010)

Last night Larry Boyd tried but was unlucky in completing this single safari Hog Slam. He took a spectacular warthog (see www.blaauwkrantz.com/latestnews ) a couple days before but true to the wary bushpigs ,they didn't come to the party...Next time Larry!