At around 15.30 hours on Sunday, 13 March, the well-known and well-respected professional hunter Claudio Chiarelli, holder of Zimbabwe professional hunter’s licence number 58 (1989) and his son Max died tragically - and needlessly - in a hail of gunfire in the Mana Pools National Park. Initial reports blamed poachers, but in fact it was blue-on-blue: euphemistically-named “friendly fire”.
Claudio and Max had been performing voluntary support duties for National Parks in the area, in concert with the Zambezi Society. On that fateful afternoon, they had gone out to collect a National Parks ranger patrol that had been following poachers’ spoor, and to deploy a further two three-man patrols; six rangers were travelling with them, as was Francesco Marconati, who operates the Vine Lodge in the park. This would feed a lot of grist into the omnipresent rumour mills, in and out of Zimbabwe, because of the “Chinese connection”.
Claudio and Max’s vehicle was parked on the side of the road in the middle section of the park; unwittingly, they had stopped a mere fifteen metres from the spot where the poachers’ spoor had crossed the road. The National Parks APU had been on spoor since around 09.00 that morning, and as they closed with the road, suddenly they heard the sound of voices. Claudio and Max had opened the bonnet of their Land Cruiser and were standing in front of the truck; Francesco and the other rangers had deployed farther back around the Cruiser. At this time of the year, the end of the rainy season, the bush can be unbelievably thick and visibility almost at a minimum. As the rangers slowly advanced, one of them caught sight of a flash of blue, Claudio’s shirt, and assuming it to be a poacher, they opened fire. Tragically, Claudio and Max died instantly.
The rumours began flying thick and fast, and it was only after Richard Maasdorp and Gary Layard of the Zambezi Society had visited the park and spoken with those involved that the actual facts emerged.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 107 - October/November 2016 من The African Hunter.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 107 - October/November 2016 من The African Hunter.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
The Tragic - and Needless - Deaths of Claudio and Max Chiarelli: Conspiracy Theories and Lessons Learned
At around 15.30 hours on Sunday, 13 March, the well-known and well-respected professional hunter Claudio Chiarelli, holder of Zimbabwe professional hunter’s licence number 58 (1989) and his son Max died tragically - and needlessly - in a hail of gunfire in the Mana Pools National Park. Initial reports blamed poachers, but in fact it was blue-on-blue: euphemistically-named “friendly fire”.
What we can Learn from the 4 500 Year Old DNA of a Primitive African Hunter
For the first time, the complete genome of a 4 500 year-old African hunter-gatherer has been sequenced from DNA recovered from a skull recovered from Ethiopia’s highlands.
Just Exactly Who Was The Malapati Bull?
The Malapati Bull, as I have chosen to call him until a more positive identification is made, was a large elephant which was shot by a German sport hunter, guided by PH Nixon Dzingai of Sengwe Safaris, on 7 October in the Malapati Safari Area outside Gonarezhou National Park.
Burkino Faso: An Adventure from Start to Finish
On January 18, 2016 there was a terrorist attack on the Splendid Hotel in a coffee shop in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou.
Transgenic Mosquitoes Bred to Combat the Spread of Vector-Borne Disease
Over half a century ago, the Zika virus was first detected in Africa.
Hunting The Situatunga
The hunting of the spiral horned antelopes is a noble pursuit of magnificent creatures regardless of the species, country or the environment. They're all incredible in their own way.
