Rocky Mountain News   Denver Colorado                                                                                 May 7 -1967

Tales of Safari Chief :

Have to be Quick To Hunt Lions

By David Brand

Rocky Mountain News Writer

Somewhere along the trail someone produced a theory about staring a lion into submission. Don’t believe it.

When a lion is coming at you from 30 yards there’s only one thing to do: Stand your ground and let him have it – right between the eyes with a double-barreled rifle.

That’s the advice of Professional Hunter Mohamed Iqbal, better known to his gung-ho clients as Ball. A Kenyan of Indian extraction,

Bali has seen more than his share of charging heavyweights.

Oh, and there’s just one more piece of ad­vice: “If the bullets don’t stop the cat- start praying.”

There’s the time, not too long ago, when Bali was standing his ground before a charg­ing buffalo. His bullets tore into the animal’s skull – but it kept coming, tossing Bali aside and on past him. Then it dropped dead.

“You see,” says Bali, “the momentum had carried the animal forward – it is something that can happen. I was scratched and I twist­ed my ankle. Not too much otherwise.

“You have to know when the animal is close enough to shoot – 99 percent of the time he will drop. It’s that 1 percent you have to worry about.”

Ball Visits Denver

Bali was in town 1o visit safari-client Roger Musick, a Denver architect. He flew in from San Antonio, where he had been attending an international big game conference.

Forget about the Errol Flynn-with-a-swagger-stick image of big game hunters (blood­thirsty types crashing through the jungle).

Bali is an unemotional man who looks more like a successful stockbroker than one whose profession is staring through the sights at trun­dling elephants.

Take this story, told with sanguine puffs at king-size filters:

“A wounded animal must always be fol­lowed and killed- it’s the law, even if it takes days. We had been following a wounded leop­ard for an hour when it jumped me from be­hind – it had been hiding behind a rock.  I am 240 pounds, but the animal brought me down. One of my crew, a Masai, but a spear through him and another finished him off with a gun.”But not before Hie leopard had taken a few bites out of Ball’s neck and ripped open his hack with its claws. He was hospitalized for three weeks. . ‘

Why

Ball is not prepared to explain why a man would want to take such enormous risks for a. living (Hunter Mauled to Death by Lion, is not an uncommon headline in African news­papers). He merely says: “It is a certain thing that comes to you naturally.”

His father was an Indian contractor who went to Kenya to work on the East African railroad. Bali was born in Nairobi.

He went on his first safari at the age .of 11. And three years later he took his first lion. “How did I feel? I felt great-it gave me confidence.”

His family wanted him to go into the con­struction business. But Bali had other ideas.

He took the Big Five-lion, elephant, leop­ard, rhino and buffalo; served a year’s ap­prenticeship with a professional hunter; obtained his license and joined a large. Nairobi outfitting company.

At 15 Yds….Shoot

“A professional has to be more than just a hunter,” says Bali. “He must be entertaining (a good stock of anecdotes for his clients) He must be capable. In a tense situation he must have a sense of humor. And he must, above all, win the confidence of his crew.”

Like the ship’s captain, the professional hunter is in complete charge of the safari- and that could be in the wilderness, 500 miles from Nairobi. He is responsible, Bali explains, for the lives of his clients and crew. “You have to be strict-it’s a matter of safety and of a hunter’s reputation.”

“You have to know the drill: When the animal charges, have patience. Stand your ground and wait until he’s 15yards or so away, then shoot.”

For safety the hunter carries a shotgun. “If the cats get too close you have to pepper them with, buckshot. That’s lethal. It ruins a skin, but it saves your own skin.”

Of course, the hunter is paid to take risks. The client need get no closer than the hunt­ing car parked 500 yards or so  away,  then  shoot. Some –King. Mahendra of Nepal among them-pre­fer to take their own game. “He’s a good shot,” says Bali.

He   won’t   say   whether   shipping   tycoon | Stavros Niarchos pulls his own trigger-only that Niarchos is “a fair shot.”

Niarchos likes champagne and Russian  vodka on the trail. That’s no problem for the professional safari men. On their 5-ton truck (“we call it a lorry”) are likely to be a calor gas fridge,, a good assortment of pots and! pans, a well-stocked bar, a radio-telephone, a  portable medical center and a reasonably exotic supply of food.

Chinese Food, Yet!

“One client requested Chinese food,” says I Bali. “There we were, in the middle of Africa, eating chop suey.”

More often the chef will prepare anything from  caviar toasties  to  crepe  suzettes electric pans here, just an open fire).

All this obviously spells money.

The basic safari costs $150 a day, and many safaris last for a month. Musick recalls that  his last safari cost him S9000, including the air fare. He was away for only 30 days.

Worth  It?   “Every   cent,”   says   Musick “There’s  nothing  in  this  world  to  compare with elephant hunting. The elephant is synonymous with Africa.”

Musick has also hunted game in the Yukon and Alaska. “Up there you have to walk! miles and get up to your crotch in snow to 1 get the big stuff. You’ve really got to be in’ shape. .

For the Older Men

“On safari you needn’t walk more than 200 yards the whole time. It’s more for the older man.”

No longer is big game hunting the pre­rogative of archdukes and princes, says Bali. Today 85 percent of safari clients are Ameri­cans. Europeans and Asians make up the other 15 percent.

Occasionally-perhaps once or twice a year -a tradition-minded client will suggest leav­ing the Jeep and truck behind and going it by horse and camel.

“It can be a little risky;” says Bali. “The horse could smell a rhino and” take off and tumble .you on the grounds..” . . .

Why would anyone want to ride a horse or camel 20 miles a day over some of the world’s roughest country?

“It’s old style. More sporting,” says Bali. But the very quietness of his voice doesn’t I sound   too    convincing.    Perhaps ‘ thinking I of all that champagne he has to leave behind,  in the fridge.