Breeding and hunting of disease-free buffaloes holds major opportunities for Namibia’s ranching, wildlife and tourism industries, according to a South African professional hunter. Wiaan van der Linde, the owner and operator of Wintershoek Safaris in South Africa, made these remarks recently at the Wildlife Ranching in Namibia information day. Breeding buffalo has become a lucrative business in South Africa, whereas game farms in Namibia are prohibited from stocking buffalo due to concerns about disease transmission.
Lucrative Van der Linde noted that the average price for a disease-free buffalo in 2004 was nearly N$150 000, with prices rising by 29% annually due to increasing demand. In 2012, a buffalo cow and her bull calf were sold for N$20 million, while a record price of N$26 million was paid for a buffalo bull. “The projects proved the successfulness of breeding with African buffalo in a commercial system that was unique to African buffalo and maintained the 'wildness' of the animals so that they could effectively be released back into the wild with minimal, if any, behavioural problems," he said.
Namibian restrictions Buffalo hunting in Namibia is limited to hunting concessions in the Zambezi Region. Namibia also has disease-free buffalo in Waterberg National Park. Van der Linde said the perception surrounding buffalo is a major reason why Namibia still lacks buffalo on its farms.
“The opportunity from buffalo is immense for Namibia if you can do what South Africa started when the first buffalo tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in 1990, when they started the disease-free projects. They successfully bred disease-free buffalo out of disease herds in Kruger National Park. You can do exactly the same here.
” Van der Linde noted that this could position Namibia and the industry among the top destinations in Africa for buffalo hunting, as buffalo is a highly sought-after animal. “It is valued by any tourist, and without a doubt Namibia is a way more favourable destination than South Africa, but the country lacks one thing, and that is buffalo.” He stressed the opportunity is significant and entails little risk.
“The risk in buffalo you can manage, but the most difficult thing regarding buffalo – and I am not sure if you can manage that – is the perception.” In South Africa, numerous disease-free buffalo breeding projects have been supported by the government since 1996, with the objective of restocking areas where buffalo populations were not viable anymore or had disappeared due to disease or exclusion by cattle farmers. Buffalo are known carriers of foot-and-mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, Corridor disease and brucellosis.
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