Australian Hunting Pics

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

It looks like this forum needs a good hard kick in the butt to get her movin! I'll post a few pics and hopefully others will follow suit or find something to talk about... hell, even arguing would be better than this silence! LOL

Following are some pics from the Australian outfit I represent:

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-water_buffalo_hunting.jpg

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-water_buffalo_hunting_2.jpg

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-water_buffalo_hunting_9L.jpg

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-crocodile_harvesting_09L.jpg

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-crocodile_harvesting_4L.jpg

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-wild_boar_hunting_21L.jpg

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

http://www.adventures411.com/uploads/1-banteng_hunting_3L.jpg
Banteng

[Bushman]

I never see a water buffalo picture but what I don't think of one hitched up to a plow in a rice patty. They just don't exude that element of danger of a cape buffalo with the post nasal drip standing glaring out of the bush ready to stomp you.

That is some kind of a large croc there. I can't imagine living in an area where something that size with a croc kind of mentality would see a person as little more than just another piece of meat. They don't live too far away from people in the cities down there either. When I was in Melbourne they had a picture of a big one in the paper where he was about half out of the water jumping after birds. That picture was taken just out from where the city discharge was.

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

I never see a water buffalo picture but what I don't think of one hitched up to a plow in a rice patty. They just don't exude that element of danger of a cape buffalo with the post nasal drip standing glaring out of the bush ready to stomp you.

I tend to agree with you, but I image that we'd have the same impression of the cape buffalo, had the native Africans been better at domesticating and early farming techniques. LOL

That said, I was nearly killed by a cow water buffalo two years ago. I was just out driving around on my motorcycle... looking at game and relaxing near my little 'village cottage' (out in the sticks of rural Thailand)... when I noticed a small herd of buffalo in a muddy water hole/wallow just off the old logging trail that I was traveling down. I stopped to take a quick photo - as they seemed relaxed enough and about 30 yards off the trail. Hell's bells!... I never even got the camera on the herd before one of the cows with a calf was up and charging! She managed to clip the fender of the bike as I peeled off into the tree plantation. It's a damn good thing that I've been riding since I was 6, or I'd have probably been just a bit more muck under her hooves!

This particular herd is a feral herd that was basically 'let free' years ago by Thais (who have deep Buddhist beliefs about killing their field helpers... second lives... reincarnation and all) after the modern farm tractor became popular (Ford having put in a major plant there). Anyway, some of these feral herds are large now and very much wild as all hell. ;)

They generally, however, seem to be less hostile than the cape buffalo, for sure, but they certainly can have their aggressive moments and are HUGE... bigger than their African cousin. The Australian PH has to deal with one or two serious charges every year.

[Wismon]

I never see a water buffalo picture but what I don't think of one hitched up to a plow in a rice patty. They just don't exude that element of danger of a cape buffalo with the post nasal drip standing glaring out of the bush ready to stomp you.
Just about any animal can be dangerous and any animal that large that you are trying to kill could be very dangerous indeed. It's nothing to take lightly, I'm sure. Further, these are wild animals, not the domesticated ones...

[Bushman]

Even those domesticated ones can give you trouble I'm sure too. Anything supposedly domesticated and big can hurt you. There was a question about what was the most dangerous animal on earth that kills more people every year than any other. Everyone thinks polar bear, crocodile, lion... But no, it is a domestic dairy bull.

I got a kick out of Bill's analysis of why they use a water buffalo to pull a plow instead of a cape buffalo. I can just see that in my mind's eye. Some farmer hitched up to a cape buffalo. A one bottom plow and a large set of gonads.

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

I find it very easy to believe that dairy bulls kill a lot of people. I was raised on a dairy but we used artificial insemination.That said, my grandfather was keen to tell all kinds of stories about pissy holstien bulls that he had to contend with in the days before easy/affordable insemination practices. In my youth, we had a few beef bulls (we also ran a cow/calf beef herd) but they were all fairly friendly critters... big, but generally well-mannered unless you were trying to move them away from a cow in heat. But, hey, that'd anger most any male...

[Wild_Bill_Hiccup]

This one aint no rice paddy bull...
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh65/wild_bill_hiccup/1-buff-2008C-1.jpg