I have been fishing and hunting for nearly 60 years. Most of the people of my age - old dinosaurs - came up through a sort of apprenticeship. We were fishing as small boys for tadpoles, frogs, and small fish, then to edible fish for the pot. The same with hunting, we hunted for the table, etc. We were taught the unwritten code of conduct that went hand in hand with being out in the wild. We were taught never to drop litter of any kind. You drop it, you pick it up. Never leave anything that shows you’ve been there. We learned about all the animals in our area. Where they preferred to live? The trees, bushes, herbs and grasses they liked to eat and what liked to eat them. We never wasted anything we harvested; we never took more than we needed. Anything over was shared out with others. As we got older there were bigger game to hunt but the same rules applied and by this time we had a deep respect for the wild life. Your code of conduct and your safety with a firearm was your passport both on other peoples land and a safe gun was the first to be invited on shoots. No one every invites an unsafe gun or a shooter with a disregard for hunting ethics.

The biggest threat to wild life is the speed at which the human race is taking land away from them. Second are the wars that take place all over the world especially here in Africa. In many places these skirmishes have devastated the wildlife. There were times here in Africa when bad management by the various governments took out thousand of animals for the wrong reasons, buffalo, wildebeest, elephants under so called Management Control and if it was not for hunting there would be even more loses. Into days world wild life has to pay to stay. A step in the right direction was the forming of conservancies in the rural areas here in Africa. People are looking after their wildlife and under strict quotas the various wildlife is being hunted on a permit for the enhancement of the species and the funds generated from hunters going to the local communities.

All over the world there are people that have invested large amounts of money into land. Developing it for wildlife the management and control of numbers being carried out through hunting and the funds generated paying for all the above. Here in Africa there is more wildlife on private land than out in the rural areas creating a livelihood for many thousands of local people and their families all being paid for by the hunter. I am just one of those that came to Africa to build such a place. The land I bought had very little on it in the way of game. Fifteen years later this area has a very strong wildlife population of many species again hunting made this happen.

Hunting will only be tolerated by the masses if it is carried out in an ethical and sportsman manner. There is nothing difficult or technical about ethics there are those that try to twist them about come up with ways of bending them or reasons for breaking them. That in its self is unethical. I have hunted in many countries around the world for many different species of game I have many years under my belt in pheasant shooting, deer stalking and I was a trophy hunter around Africa before I came here 15 years ago to be a Professional Hunter. I have met thousands of hunters from all over the world and they all have a great love of the wilds. They all love animals and have a very strong code of conduct. The magic is in the hunting and of wandering out in the wild places, seeing and listening to all of life. The feeling of being privileged to be out in the space and freedom. This cannot be wrong – if it is then so am I.

Ken Morris, Byseewah Safaris