The border between Catalonia and Valencia is so called the mountain region of Spain and very beautiful place. The weather, in the mid of November, isn’t comfortable. Rain drizzles from time to time and frost is in the morning. My friend Sergey and I arrived from Belarus because wanted to get the trophy of the Beceite Ibex, one from four species habituated in Spain. It’s always interesting to visit the new place, to meet new people and to get acquaintance with new culture…
I had to mention that hunting lands, where we hunted, wasn’t large but the animals density was really high. We went for a hunt twice in a day, in the morning and in the evening, and I detected nine trophy size males while we were looking for the best one and countless number of females with youngsters. Huntign in Spain isn’t difficult and all hunters know about it, but there are some moments which adds complexity to the hunting process. I talk about the great number of people who are hiking, driving bikes or picking up mushroom there. Telling the truth I was surprised that picking wild plants and mushrooms is as popular in Spain like in Belarus.
Many years ago that mountain region was densely populated with people and moving up and down in the mountains we noticed and not once the signs of former presence of human beings such as abandoned villages, detached chalets and haciendas, agricultural terraces, not talking about the old road system which still exists there. It’s not the secret why people left that area. It’s more comfortable to live near the sea because of the mild climate and it’s easier to farm there and to fish. But a couple of centuries ago it was dangerous to build settlements near the sea because the pirates made regular raids on civilians and people should have to hide in the inaccessible places. When the danger was over people descended from the mountains and all villages were deserted.
The influence of the environmentalist lobby in Europe grows from year to year and it adds more problems to the local hunters. We talked with the locals and they said us that the State authorities don’t allow them latitude, though the Ex-King of Spain is the avid trophy hunter.
We monitored the group of Ibex, which was going down to the valley, when noticed the car. The guided asked me to cover weapons just in case, though everything was legal and we had all necessary permits. That case reminded me, our ordinary Belarus hunter who is intimidated by lots of rules and different kinds of authority's control.
The hunting legislation in Spain is the strictest one among other countries in the Western Europe and the guides there is the most terrorized ones. There are three kinds of police which can control the law’s implementation in the hunting sphere. The demands to the hunting users include the installation of the informational boards, making roads, salt licks, digging and maintaining fire reservoirs in the most remote mountain areas. It’s interesting to note that it’s prohibited to sow crops for feeding of the wild animals. They say, that it’s done to protect the local bio types, the less human beings interfere the wild nature the better. But the owners of hunting lands find ways around these restrictions. They rent the nearest land for farming. I could hardly believe that any vegetation grow on that inhospitable land. There were just macadam under our feet.
It was morning when we detected the group of Ibexes on the slope. There was one big male among females and youngsters. The guide an I decided to ascend and to get it. The approach was easy because all slopes were covered by the thick forest consisted of pine trees and mountain oaks. It took us some time, to come to the place. But we didn’t find the herd there. The guide wasn’t perplex at all and asked to follow him. We went through the bushes and came directly to the animals. I had no idea, how he could find the way there. Unfortunately we saw just the horns because animals were hidden in the bushes and there wasn’t any opportunity to fire. That morning we hiked about eight km. Then the rain started and we should come back because all ibexes disappeared in the thicket. Next day we found the same group, the animals were moving directly to us. It was about 270 meters to the male and I was preparing to shoot from the rented shotgun Browning X-Bolt.300 WinMag when the guide asked me to wait for a moment. He assured me that the male would come to us in any case.
But we lost the best moment for shooting when the herd descended to our place while the male stayed alone for a moment. I observed it through the binoculars and didn’t notice that the rest of the group approached us 30 meters and considered us with the interest. They didn’t wait and signaled danger. My Ibex jumped aside following them. I didn’t have any second and should have to shoot. The distance to the goal was about 300-310 metes. I aimed, shot and missed!
Few minutes I couldn’t see the male then found. It run behind the young males and wasn’t wounded. I aimed once again and shot. The goat ran to the forests and I decided that missed the second time. But another guided who watched everything through the scope told me that I hit its belly.
One of our team went to the place where we saw the goat last time while the others went back to the camp. The guide, who left, found blood on the stones but didn’t chase the ibex. He allowed the animal to lay down somewhere. Our host in the camp congratulated me with the successful hunt and told that there wasn’t any case when they lost the wounded animal.
Next day the young guide took his hunting terrier and went for the trophy. He found it while we went for another hunt.
Sergey took very interesting Ibex. It had small horns but all guides declared unanimously that it was the eldest male they had ever got. It was about 15 years old.
Thus we took two trophies of Ibexes and my friend shot two selective individuals. There is an outbreak of epizootic among Beceite Ibexes . The sick animals looked unattractive, the bodies covered with scabs and they almost don’t have hair. They reminded foxes or wolves when they got scabies. Sergey took such two samples. The guided supposed those animals could hardly live more than one week.
Recently there was an abundance of wild boars but most of them died because of African swine fever. Spain was one of the first countries in Europe which felt the consequences of epizootic. The only way to prevent the spread of the disease was to shoot boars.
I want to share with some more notes which made during that trip. I consider the Spanish guides are close to the embodiment of Ideal Guides as we all imagine them. They are professional, correct and responsible. You have to respect them and to treat them as equal.
We accommodated in the ordinary farmer’s house and eat plain food but it was tasty and good quality. Each day we used clean car.
Few words about the funny story that happened to us there. Before I’d get the trophy I asked the guide to cut me the piece of meat and he asked for what purpose. The friend of mine lived in Barcelona and I wanted to present it to him. The guide smiled when heard my explanation and decided that I want to make fun on him.
- No. I want to make him a present. – I replied.
- A piece of meat? Goat meat? What harm has he done for you?
Later he explained me his reaction. There were hungry times in the early reign of Franco. People should had to poach to survive and shot almost all chamois, deer and boars and only goats left. The reason was very easy. The meat of wild goat smelt so awful that nobody could eat it even being hungry.
Only dogs and vultures could eat it. Two species of vultures habit that area and the guides are responsible for feeding them . As you guess we moved to Barcelona without meat.
