God Created Man the Hunter

by Ron Thomson

This is the first big game hunting memoir book in a series of six. God Created Man the Hunter chronicles the author’s development as a game ranger and big game hunter in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).By the time he was twenty, besides a goodly score of soft-skinned animals, he had killed six leopards, one elephant and a 14 foot-long crocodile. He hunted these animals on his own and he solved all the problems he encountered by trial and error.He does not project himself as being a fearless young man who had the capacity, then, to hunt down these dangerous animals in a gung-ho fashion. The first leopard he shot was the first leopard he had ever seen. The first elephant he shot was the second elephant he had seen. He honestly describes the terrible fears and serious doubts he endured whilst executing these early hunts.In November 1959, aged twenty, he joined Rhodesia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management as a game ranger. He was first posted to the Matopos National Park where, in less than a year, his leopard tally rose to nearly twenty.In October 1960 he was transferred to Main Camp, Hwange National Park. Within three months, in the company of a more senior game ranger who was his mentor, he hunted eighteen elephants, five buffaloes and a hippo; and he had killed one stock-killing lion on his own. These animals were all tracked down with Bushman trackers and shot outside the boundaries of the national park. After January 1961, he began hunting all these dangerous game animals on his own.His confidence grew, in tandem, with his constantly increasing experience.Some of the hunts the author describes in this book will surely be recorded as being amongst the most exciting African big game hunting stories ever told. This book has been adapted from its original hardcopy form for Kindle. ALL photographs present in the original version have been removed to facilitate downloading.

365 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2015

Reviews

[Andy Herzfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ron Thomson is a very skilled writer with a wealth of stories to tell. It is not easy to communicate your personal experiences and tense moments in an easy to follow and understand format. I hope I have his memory when I get to the age he was when he started writing his books. This guy has a lot to say. One of the best books I have read about the African bush experience. Hunting big game and people to protect the park and preserve the wildlife.
If you enjoy African hunting books this should be at the top of your list. You are right there with him hunting elephant, buffalo and his specialty Leopards with the occasional Lion. He works daily with the Bushman trackers who teach him how to survive in the bush and the animals in it. I plan on reading the whole series.

[Arnold Goldschlager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ron Thompson is the foremost Conservationist Big Game Hunter in the. World.
His lifetime career as Head Game Ranger in the Rhodesian Park system has provided him with a lifetime experience in ecology, zoology, botany, wildlife management.

No one is better suited to counter the lies and distortions that appears in the mainstream media.

Ron tells the real truth about what is happening to our planet as a result of ignorance, corruption, greed that has existed for the last forty years in African countries

He uses facts to make his case rather than emotional, convenient propaganda.

He is an international treasure and should be read wifely if one wishes to undermine the real story.