{"id":1524,"date":"2023-08-25T14:45:28","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2023-08-25T14:45:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T14:45:28","slug":"the-fearless-safari-dogs-of-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1524","title":{"rendered":"The Fearless Safari Dogs of South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"


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THE WOUNDS<\/span><\/strong> from his fight with a baboon weren\u2019t fully healed when Bismark charged the Cape buffalo.<\/p>\n

We had spent the day trying to split two satellite bulls from the herd. I had been hired to photograph a plains- and dangerous-game safari in South Africa\u2019s northernmost province of Limpopo, and I was shooting through my telephoto lens as one of the bulls broke from cover and charged.<\/p>\n

The hunter shot the buff at 40 yards, then again. Bismark, a wire-haired Jack Russell, stood at heel beside his handler, professional hunter Divan Human. I don\u2019t know how many shots were fired\u2014both by the hunter and the PH\u2014as the buffalo thundered to 15 yards, but it wasn\u2019t dying. That\u2019s when Bismark broke heel and tried to ride it.<\/p>\n

The cape buffalo charges as hunter Wayne Messbarger settles behind his rifle. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a lifelong hunter, I\u2019ve seen bayed bears and treed mountain lions. As a nuisance wildlife professional, I\u2019ve pulled badgers out of holes and I\u2019ve been face to face with rattlesnakes under houses. Nothing compares to that Cape buffalo charge. They\u2019re called \u201cblack death\u201d in South Africa, and I get that now. But the heart of a terrier is unmatched, and Bismark was ready to die for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bismark is unshakable, but he\u2019s no one-hit wonder.\u00a0I saw a dozen blood-tracking dogs while on safari this spring; every one was a Jack Russell. The breed<\/a> was first developed in Britain for fox hunting, and its prevalence in South Africa today is a byproduct of British colonialism. Although I didn\u2019t see any on my trip, Jagd terriers (\u201cjagd\u201d is German for \u201chunt\u201d) are also popular among South African outfitters.<\/p>\n

The cool thing about terriers is they can do a little bit of everything. I\u2019ve owned Jagds for nearly a decade and they\u2019re integral to my nuisance wildlife business in the Southwest. Although it\u2019s no longer commonplace in the U.S., terriers were originally bred for this work. They excel at finding dead animals, locating live ones, and catching critters. Because of all that tenacity packed into a small body, they also have a tendency to get hurt on the job. (As the Jack Russell Terrier Club of South Africa<\/a> puts it, the \u201creal Jack Russell terrier does not sit on the sidelines of life.\u201d) While PHs here release their dogs on most game tracks, they don\u2019t allow them to trail warthogs, which are notorious for killing dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"tiny
Hunter stands beside a blue wildebeest that he tracked through the brush. Jack Russell terriers can have three types of coats: smooth, wiry, or broken, which is a mix of the first two. While Jack Russells in the U.S. are all over the map when it comes to physical and personality traits, the South African dogs are very true to their breed type. And as someone who appreciates working dogs\u2014I own 15, both terriers and bird dogs\u2014this was especially fun to see. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"long-haired
Bismark takes a break by the truck. Once he got back to camp each day, he would pull bones from the skinning shed to chew on. The tracking dogs were incredibly well behaved; they never ran off or even barked really, unless we were hunting and there was an animal down. They also ate like kings.
Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Bismark was younger, one of Human\u2019s clients shot a big Nile crocodile and Bismark broke at the shot. That\u2019s scary because you\u2019re relying on a client to not shoot your dog, but you also don\u2019t want the animal alive enough to kill your dog. Fortunately it was a good hit, but that\u2019s just how it goes with terriers sometimes: You can\u2019t proof a dog until you put him in situations like that. I saw lots of animals harvested in the three weeks I was there, and only now and then would a dog slip up and break at heel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A standard track looked like this: As soon as the shot went off and the PH released his dog, the trackers would run in and try to keep up. Because we were hunting in such thick cover\u201450-yard shots were far in some cases\u2014you couldn\u2019t see the live dog 100 yards away, let alone the kudu that was just shot. It was helpful to hear barking so you could locate him.<\/p>\n

\"jack
Whenever you go to the gas station in town or run to the corner store in the Limpopo province, there are PHs from other ranches and outfitters there. And whenever you look in the bed of a parked or idling truck, you\u2019ll find a little Jack Russell. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"three
Bismark rests beside his handler, Divan Human, who discusses plans with Johan Swart, owner of Thaba-Tala Safaris<\/a> (middle), and PH Divon Retief. South Africa is like the Texas of Africa\u2014and I mean that as a compliment. The men I hunted with aren\u2019t afraid to get dirty or get stuff done. They manage their game like Texans do (there\u2019s a lot of high fence in South Africa). They love hunting. They love their trucks. And they love their dogs. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"jack
The terriers in South Africa are used almost exclusively as blood-tracking dogs. Bismark, however, was an enthusiastic retriever to boot, and even retrieved a few birds for me. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a shot the dog was off to the races, and the human tracker was not far behind. And the trackers were incredible. I was skeptical at first. I\u2019ve heard stories of how great they are, but I couldn\u2019t help thinking: I\u2019ve hunted my whole life. How good can these guys really be?<\/em> What you don\u2019t realize is those trackers hunt year-round except for the rainy season and they track lots of animals every day.<\/p>\n

Better yet, the dogs don\u2019t take away from the tracker\u2019s job because often the tracker\u2019s job isn\u2019t just finding downed game\u2014it\u2019s finding live game. South Africans only use their blood dogs for finding animals that have been hit well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the Cape buffalo was well hit\u2014several times. In the end, the bull slid to a stop just yards from our feet, with Bismark barking on its back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"rough-coated
Bismark sits atop the Cape buffalo that charged us. The dogs I hunted alongside obeyed commands in Afrikaans, one of the country\u2019s 11 official languages. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"smooth-coated
Hunter licks blood off an impala he tracked as his owner, Retief, crouches beside him. Resource guarding isn\u2019t uncommon among tracking dogs, and these Jack Russells would growl if you got too close to an animal they had recovered. These were just typical terrier vocalizations and a typical terrier attitude. They never bit anyone, of course, and they would defer to their handlers. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"hunter
Bismark and Human return to camp after a long day in the field. Most hard-worked terriers are one-person dogs. Don\u2019t get me wrong: They make great family dogs. But if you\u2019re out and about, everyone ceases to exist to your terrier except you. Tyler Sladen<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read more\u00a0OL+<\/a>\u00a0stories.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n