I HAD wanted to hunt a red hartebeest for some time but never had the opportunity. Namibia’s severe drought during 2019/2020 made it even more difficult. Red hartebeest require good rainfall and grasslands to survive, and many had been lost to the drought. Almost all the responses to my enquiries had been negative, so you can imagine my relief when I heard that Jamy Traut Hunting Safaris would be able to assist.
On a bitterly cold morning we parked the bakkie under a camelthorn tree, grabbed our gear and started walking across dunes, down into the ‘streets’ between the rolling dunes, scanning for any sign of hartebeest. We saw plenty of springbuck and black wildebeest and we just had to hope they wouldn’t get spooked and chase away any hartebeest in the vicinity.
A few dune crossings later, from the crest of a dune, we spotted a lone hartebeest bull grazing opposite, some 600m distant. A
