I do in fact, Currently I have 2 full herds of Impala, A bachelor herd, 1.2 Cape Eland, and formerly Nyala, I lost them all after a rather heavy winter.
Awesome! Do they all need a 10 foot fence or is that only if they're really stressed that they'll jump it? Which African hoofstock species is most cold-weather hardy? I'd love to own some eland one day!
Let me start here, the game industry is huge, about 14 000 different ranches keep native and exotic ungulate in South-Africa in a semi-captive environment, to the point were some species are dirt cheap (Springbok, Impala...) and other more expensive (Sable, Roan...). About the fence, 3 meters is usually necessary, Not only because of stress, but animals like kudu, or Eland, would jump fences (and in some cases even the tall ones) just because the grass is greener on the other side. Bushbuck on the other hand are crawlers, they won't stay where you put them, no matter how electrified or fortified it is, they'll find a way out, simply because they feel like it. Weather is not really in issue, anywhere, most species are quite hardy to the cold, some even preferring it, such as the black wildebeest living in the high Karoo Plateau. I think the death of my Nyalas where do to A, the unusually cold winter and B the severe drought taking place at the time, those two combined caused them to die out within in 2 months, I'm hoping to bring in another herd this year, but will be keeping them in a contained area to monitor them before release. The thing that restricts the keeping of animals in certain areas is ticks. Ticks are everywhere, yes, but they don't carry the same diseases everywhere. These have come to be known as the different "tick areas" with the two major players being the hartswater area and the redwater area. Some species can survive in both, some in just one, and some in none at all. Animals like Springbok, coming from a disease free area known as the Karoo and greater North Cape area, are not immune to both the Redwater and hartswater areas, thus are not often kept if at all, kept in these areas. There have been progress in normalizing the disease to springbok, with some success, but the auction prices speak for themselves... A ordinary springbok fetches R900 at most, whereas a hartwater immune springbok is a bit more towards the R10 000 mark. I hope that answers your questions!
I know your post was asking if anyone here keeps these animals and I certainly do not. Also, this is neither criticism nor endorsement of those who do. Anyways, I thought I would add this as an addendum to Nix’s post. These farms do not just exist within the animal’s native ranges. In Texas USA there are game farms full of exotic hoof stock. Some critically endangered species like Addax and Scimitar Oryx number in the thousands or tens of thousands on these ranches. These facilities are generally not open to the “general public” as the main way they make money is by selling “exotic hunts”. This next part is pure speculation; but my assumption is that they avoid the Endangered Species Act because the herds predate the listing of those species or even the act itself.
The species they keep are either not covered under the endangered species act, or they have permits that allow them to keep the species. There is no loophole of any kind here and Texas hunting ranches are perfectly legal in all senses of the word.
First, my overall point was to highlight the incredible success these facilities have had at propagating species that are all but extinct elsewhere. Yes, I agree it is fully legal. My point on that was that the ESA provides two main paths to legal possession of endangered species and their remains. The one that most organizations like traditional zoos rely in is to prove to US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that the possession or transfer is beneficial to the species. The second is for the animal or object to have been in human possession either before the act was signed or before the species was listed as protected. This is path usually only used for remains (objects made of things like ivory or tortoiseshell are only legal if the were made before 1973). The USFWS has a consistent history of denying “beneficial” permits to hunters even when requested by the wildlife agencies of other countries.
