1976: Africa Pictures

Each morning we would drive out, lookong for game, usually antelope of some kind.  Once shot, the staff would cut it up, smoke the meat over a fire, soak it in brine, then hang it up to dry on clothes lines:

The inedible parts we put aside - they made quite a display.

Not surprisingly, our campsite attracted a lot of curious - and hungry - animals.  In particular, one night we had a lion come to visit.  Here's what happened: the men who helped track the animals and prepare the biltong (jerky) slept around the fire.  In the middle of the night one of them stepped away from the fire to take a pee.  When he looked up, he saw a lion crouching in the grass, ready to spring.  He jumped back, the lion missed, and began to stalk him as he ran around the fire, waking up his buddies, and yelling "Simba!  Simba!" 

We heard his calls, and as the helpers came running to the tent, our hunters put on their headlamps, loaded their rifles, and ran out to meet the lion.  Meanwhile the lion had managed to catch his quarry, and was lying on top of him.  The hunters approached the lion, yelling and cursing him in Afrikaans.  He looked up, and they nailed him with a shot to the head.

Examining the lion later, is was clear that it had attacked as a desperate measure: it was terribly emaciated, probably weak from hunger.  It was missing many teeth: in fact, it had been unable to bite the man it had attacked.

We hung an impala in a tree as bait, and waited in the dark in a blind.  When we heard sounds, our hunters fired, we heard something fall, and we scurried back to the tent to wait until morning.  What we found was a baby leopard:

It had been with its mother in the tree.  For the next two weeks, we could hear her circling the camp.  So sad...

The hunters alse had a license to kill one elephant.  They shot it from the vantage point of a hillock:  

In an agreement with the local villagers, who were employed as trackers and camp helpers, they were given the elephant to cut up and use as meat.