The Elephant : Loxodonta Africana The worlds largest land mammal, and they don’t let you forget it. Cows living in breading herds run on a matriarchal system and the bulls generally live alone or in small bachelor groups. Eating up to 600 lbs of food a day, their impact on the environment can be disastrous. However they are one of Gods most remarkable creations.

Cows generally being the most aggressive out of the sexes will charge for no apparent reason. Having a calf every 4-5 years they can get out of control.

Elephants tend to be one of the most controversial animals between people. There is a misconception that there is hardly any elephant left brought on by the donation hungry animal rights groups. This couldn’t be further from the truth in Southern Africa were most Wild Life Areas are talking about culling thousands of elephant to protect the other species and the environment.

Hunting the elephant is a dangerous and very exciting challenge. Make sure you have a good pair of worn in shoes as they can make you walk a mile for every pound of ivory. Most first time elephant hunters are recommended to go for the heart / lung shot and sometimes in the thick Jesse this is the only shot possible. However the brain shot is preferred by most. The frontal brain shot being the most difficult because of the different angles one may find them selves in. This is the only shot possible in a close charge situation as a heart shot won’t drop it in its tracks. Once dropped, care should be made to make sure the elephant is dead with a back up shot or two as sometimes they are stunned and can come back from the dead at the most inopportune times. Only large caliber rifles should be used and most countries minimum caliber is the .375. Generally only solid ammunition is used especially for the brain shots.

One of the Africa’s problems is the elephants raiding the farmer’s crops. A couple of bull elephant can destroy a family’s food for one year in a single night. Although cows do a bit of crop raiding it is generally the bulls that persist, coming in mostly at night and leaving early morning. Many people have been killed trying to protect their crops.

In Zimbabwe a CAMPFIRE programme has been used to benefit local villages with problem elephant. This programme allows hunters to shoot elephants in the fields or on a follow up from the fields, the trophy fee and all the meat go back to the community to subsidies their loses and show them the value of their wildlife. This money then is used to build schools and clinics for the people. Although these bulls may not be the biggest trophies, the hunt can be exciting and the moral benefits can be huge for the true hunter.