The hunting season that started on May 1 ended on July 31.

“The season was for open property, that is proper game farms without fencing to contain the game and applied to the species kudu, bushbuck, impala and common duiker,” said Mr Allan McMurtrie, chief environmental officer concerning wildlife and trade. They fall under the Department of Eco-nomic Development, Environment and Tourism.

On a game farm with a Certificate of Adequate Enclosure (CoAE), the farmer may hunt outside the hunting season. The CoAE has to be renewed every three years.

Following the past hunting season, Mr McMurtrie said that he experienced a decline in the number of hunts.

“I put it down to fewer open properties available to hunters, maybe to land claims, and to people not knowing how to obtain the necessary hunting license,” McMurtrie said.

Their offices have been moved by the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism from the corner of Burger and Joubert Street to 84 Munnik Street.

“We still have no telephone lines or signage to indicate the name of the office. It could be that hunters who wanted to do an application quickly could not find the premises,” McMurtrie said.

The national profile of the biltong hunter, compiled in 2005 and 2007, showed that Limpopo was the preferred destination for most of the hunters. The largest percentage of the hunters came from Gauteng and they preferred the Bushveld. Male hunters formed 99% of the hunters and about 80% of them were Afrikaans speaking and 63% were between the ages of 40 and 64 years. The top 10 game species hunted were springbuck, impala, blesbuck, warthog, kudu, brindled gnu, oryx and mountain reedbuck. Kudu was the top income generator, with impala in the second place.

Hunters, landowners and other persons with enquiries regarding hunting can contact McMurtrie at 082 904 5812.