THRILLING SPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 894, 11 February 1930, Page 9

THRILLING SPORT

WILD ANIMALS IN THOUSANDS PHOTOGRAPHING BIG GAME Big-game hunting in Kenya Colons' ancl Tanganyika is full of thrills, but photographing big game is even more exciting. Mr. \V. P. Tewksbury, 0.8. E., a through passenger on the Niagara, has just returned from bis second expedition to South Africa, which he says is the hunters’ paradise AVild animals are there in thousands. Giraffes in large herds, zebras, every kind of antelope and gazelle, rhinoceroses, leopards, cheetas. buffaloes, lions and elephants are to be found throughout the country. Apart from the hunting, the countryside of Kenya is very beautiful. There are huge sweeps of open country behind which Mount Kenya rises to a height of 17,000 feet. Up the mountain slopes there are magnificent forests of cedar, bamboo and camphor. Hunters, after organising their parties, are transported by motor-car and motor-truck. White men who are familiar with the country are taken as guides, and a certain number of black "boys” accompany the party. Lions, says Mr. Tewksbury, are not so fierce as is familiarly believed. Sometimes they look as though they

could be patted on the bead, but they are apt to change their attitude very quickly. Once, while walking through long grass near his camp, Mr. Tewksbury almost trod on a lioness. Zebras are frequently killed to lure lions out into the open, or to keep them near the camp for the following day’s sport. At one camp there were as many as eight Hons on a. kill 150 yards from his tents. The nights in camp are amazing. The roaring and grunting of Hons, the laughing of hyenas and the barking of jackals make sleep impossible and the whole night eerie with a strange concert. But Mr. Tewksbury would rather see the animals alive than dead. He admits to killing some excellent specimens, but he w'ould rather photograph wild animals than shoot them. Photographing is the more dangerous sport. During his last expedition Mr. Tewksbury was accompanied by his niece, Miss AHvienne Tewksbury, of Melbourne.