tanknut Posted September 11, 2007 Author Posted September 11, 2007 South African National Defence Force doing border patrols in the Kruger National Park (and other border areas) in northern South Africa very often deals with the local fauna, ranging from lion to elephant, rhino, hippo, hyena etc. Hippo most problematic. The rest can be mostly avoided (not allowed to interfere with wildlife). Lion takes quite a number of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border. One of our company commanders tells a story of, as young section leader, having a MAG gunner in his section late at night in a temp base/bivvy getting involved in an argument with a hyena. Half a belt of 7.62 v. hyena apparently not a fair fight.Everyone hates those fuckign things. my father was stationed back in the 1960s in a communications base in Eritrea (then part of Ethiopia). He said the sheep herders would profusely thank them when annoyed soldiers riding into town would take out those things with their .30 cals (and sometimes even the big .50 cal M-2's) for target practice.
Marek Tucan Posted September 11, 2007 Posted September 11, 2007 Makes sense, hyenas are rather active when it comes to stealing villager's farm animals AFAIK
DKTanker Posted September 19, 2007 Posted September 19, 2007 Had some encounters with camels...pretty much left them alone after giving 1st aid to a Bedouin that had been bitten by one of his camels. Worst thing about them, stink to high heaven when dead. Had a few run ins with cobras, the reptilian type. In the vein of Michael Vick, we had some "organized" scorpion v ant fights.
Danno Posted September 25, 2007 Posted September 25, 2007 I had a run-in with a group of wild boars one night in Bergen, Germany. I was headed up a hill to the field kitchen from my tent for KP early one morning and I was chased up by a group of them. I ran my ass off. I saw an E-7 get goared in the butt at Graf on time. He was OK but we get got quite a chuckle at his expense. When I was in Kuwait we saw some pretty large lizards and a few of the guys caught some pretty nasty scorpions.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now