Africa

Antelope sold at game auction in South Africa for €1.76m

‘Aim is to breed a sable with 60-inch horns’

Driven by growing demand from international hunters for exotic and large-horned animals, South Africa’s game-ranching industry is valued at close to €800 million a year and is growing at about 10 per cent annually, according to Barclays Africa Group Ltd.

Fri Sep 25 2015 - 09:44

A Zambian sable antelope bull has been sold for 27 million rand (€1.76 million) at a game auction in northern South Africa.

The animal, known as Mopanie, is four and a half years old and has curved horns of 48 inches (1.2 metres). The bull was bought by a game farmer from Letsitele, 445km northeast of Johannesburg.

The sale of a second animal, named Deuce, for 21 million rand (€1.4 million) also broke the record for a Zambian sable bull of 12.25 million rand (€800,000).

The two have the same father, Piet, a bull with horns of almost 54 inches, according to auctioneer Niel Swart of Vleissentraal. “The aim is to breed a sable with 60-inch horns,” Swart said on Friday.

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“The breeders will have special female animals to use with these types of genes to try and get to that 60-inch bull.”

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