Not interested in how much the hunt costs, but perhaps H&H Hunter or the FrankH or someone could do a good post on the actual economics and logistics of hunting in Africa beyond just the travel, tags, and PH fee.
For instance, how do you ship your trophies back and how much does it cost?
Are they mounted in Africa or mounted in the US? What is the mounting cost on something like a buffalo, or that hippo?
I assume you can't bring the meat back in the US. If you shoot a warthog, what special US permits do you need to bring a trophy back?
Today 12:09 AM
Countertop,
Let me try to answer your questions. It sounds as if you have some knowledge about the issue since you specifically mentioned Warthogs. Apparently you know someone who has imported a Warthog in the past? Or are you an agent of the USFWS? Just curious.
In any case here goes.
For instance, how do you ship your trophies back and how much does it cost?
You can either have them shipped by air or surface (sea container) and the cost will be directly in proportion to the size of the shipment. You can expect between $2,000 and $10,000+ for air shipments depending on how large your shipment is. Surface shipments are fraction of that cost you can ship a major amount of stuff over by sea for under $1000 USD but it takes a long time like 6 months and your risk of rotting and damage is higher. Your outfitter should have all the options and details for your shipments and should have those details included in your signed contract before the commencement of the hunt. I highly recommend using a
competent booking agent to handle all of this stuff for you. It makes life much easier.
Are they mounted in Africa or mounted in the US? What is the mounting cost on something like a buffalo, or that hippo?
The answer to this question is yes. Either way you can have them mounted in Africa or have the horns and capes shipped back to the US I've done it both ways and either way you wind up paying about the same. Mounting is cheaper in Africa but shipping the mounted heads is takes up more room and is far more expensive to ship. Shipping skins and horns is cheaper but US taxidermy is far more expensive so it is about a wash. I find African taxidermy to be of questionable quality I've seen good stuff and some really bad stuff but I guess that is true of US taxidermy too.
The cheapest way is to have you stuff mounted in Africa and then shipped over by sea container. But there are many pitfalls you can get into when having taxidermy done in Africa. I've been the recipient of some of those problems like lost heads the wrong heads being sent over broken stuff. I just won't do African taxidermy anymore. PERIOD.
As far as the cost of having heads done you are going to have to call your taxidermist they all charge different prices there is no set amount for a specific head among the industry.
I assume you can't bring the meat back in the US. If you shoot a warthog, what special US permits do you need to bring a trophy back?
No you can't bring meat back into the US from just about anywhere but REALLY not from Africa. But don't worry all of your animals will be happily consumed by the folks over there. None of it will be wasted.
A warthog does not require a special permit but a warthog that is not a finished piece requires a health inspection at a licensed facility by a USFWS agent. There some other species that require a CITES permit to imported and some that are not importable at all. You must have obtained your CITES permit BEFORE you hunt the animal. Do not ever buy off on somebody trying to have you shoot a CITES animal having you pay for it and then obtaining the permit. It simply doesn't work that way. And once again a competent booking agent will handle all of those details for you.
I hope that I have answered some of your questions. I don't mean to sound pushy by asking you if you are with the USFW it is just strange that you singled out the only non CITES animal that is a legal issue to import.