The furred critter we pursued in the daylight was the hyrax, or dassie as they’re called. A large rodent like animal that lives in a variety of terrain; but seemed to prefer either the very rugged rock formations or the flat grassy areas where they compete with the sheeps grazing pastures. My host leaves a majority of his land uncultivated to optimize the wildlife habitat, but there are areas where he needs to keep the grazing competition down, and these became my primary dassie shoots. The best way to get into range was to go out in full camo, these guys were a real challenge, every bit as difficult as a prairie dog to get close to. But propped uncomfortably atop 2 inch thorns waiting, they eventually would start to come out of their burrows, where my silenced gun would allow to pop a couple before they dived back down from a few minutes to a half hour before resurfacing.
I have to say that as much as I enjoyed the big game hunting that came later, the time I was out and about after varmint and small game was every bit as enjoyable. There were so many “shootable” pest of so many types, it never got boring for a minute. If you enjoyed reading about the hunts, get the “African Airgun Safari” where I go into detail about the hunts for each specie.
Springhares (left) are a bizzare looking creature, also found in large numbers at night. Lamping is the accepted approach to taking both species. I used my .308 to nail this guy on the run.