Mutambo Films

Documenting wildlife conservation and the human condition in the heart of Africa. The art of the hunt, documented.

04/09/2026

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the town of Marangira, the Marangira hunting concession and the surrounding communities.

There are a lot of conflicting reports coming out of Niassa today regarding what happened, with different accounts of the attack, casualties and the number of people still unaccounted for.

With the information we have at the moment, we understand that the hunting camp was attacked and burned, that staff were forced to flee, and that three clients were evacuated by helicopter to safety. Other reports are emerging regarding casualties and missing people, but we are still trying to establish exactly what has happened.

I have hunted and filmed in this area many times. It is where my big game filmmaking really began, and it is a place that I hold incredibly close to my heart. I have met and worked alongside many wonderful people from these communities over the years, which makes hearing this news particularly difficult.

Whatever the final details prove to be, it is the local people who will ultimately feel the greatest impact of an attack like this.

Right now, all we can do is hope that our friends are safe, that those who have gone missing are found, and that everyone affected by this terrible event gets home safely.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them all.

02/09/2026

The diverse country of Limpopo’s Mogol River.

Spread across 5,000 hectares, this property moved from sandy riverbeds and thick bush to rugged koppies dotted with ancient baobabs. It was among those koppies that this steenbok gave us the opportunity we had been waiting for.

Great shooting Katy!

01/09/2026

Heading back to camp after the hippo harvest can be a somber moment.

The boat tends to fall silent as we make our way back to our bay. The arguing, the shouting, the thanks from the community, and the sheer intensity of the whole experience all start to sink in. It’s a visceral thing to witness.

All we return with is the skull. Everything else has been left with the community.

But back at camp, the attention turns to a mighty vundu on the line.

31/08/2026

There we were, back on the tracks of our two old dugga bulls in Manda Wilderness.

We had seen them just the day before, trailing the herd, and wherever the herd went, there was a good chance the two old bulls weren’t far behind.

Their tracks crossed and tangled with those of the main herd, making the decision to follow them a difficult one. There was every chance we could spend the day following spoor that would eventually lead us nowhere. But follow we did.

The new rains had changed the country. Water was beginning to fill the pans and pools, the bush was greening, and the buffalo suddenly had plenty of options. They could move almost wherever they pleased, and the tracks became harder to read with every river crossing.

It was slow going, but there was something about being out there that made the pace irrelevant.

We were following buffalo through a wilderness coming back to life, with the rains settling into the earth and fresh green pushing through the old dust.

30/08/2026

Watch out Tanzania 🇹🇿 Christopher Sloan Walters is back and just might feed an entire village again.

Jokes aside, while meat is one of the most tangible and visible benefits of hunting in rural communities, the impact of a hunt goes far beyond what ends up on the dinner table.

It’s the jobs created, the income that stays in the local economy, the empowerment of communities, and the opportunities that come with having hunters operating in these remote areas.

During the course of a single hunt, Chris, like so many hunters who choose to hunt in these places, will directly and indirectly affect hundreds of lives. The meat is important. But it’s only one piece of a much bigger picture.

25/08/2026

A giant has fallen.

This was an exceptionally old southern giraffe bull, taken on private property in Namibia. You can see his age in the worn condition of his ossicones, the small, rounded structures on top of his head. He had reached the end of his productive years, and the landowner wanted to make room for younger breeding bulls to take over the herd.

So we came in and hunted him.

It is easy to look at photographs like this and see only the animal that was “lost”. What is much harder to see is the larger system that makes the continued existence of these animals on private land possible.

Southern giraffe are a remarkable conservation success story. Their numbers have increased dramatically in recent years, with the population estimated to have risen from around 46,000 animals in 2020 to roughly 69,000 in 2025. Today, southern giraffe make up almost half of all giraffe in Africa.

And a significant proportion of them live on private land.

That isn’t an accident.

When wildlife has tangible value, through hunting, tourism, game ranching or the sale of its products, it gives landowners a reason to maintain habitat and keep wildlife on the land. The giraffe becomes an asset worth protecting rather than an animal competing with livestock or other land uses.

That was certainly the case here.

The landowner received value from the hunt, while the meat was processed and will be sold and consumed within Namibia. The animal therefore continued to generate value long after the hunt itself, supporting the people involved in processing and distributing it while creating an economic incentive for the landowner to continue maintaining giraffe on his property.

And that is why you see such a large group around this animal. This wasn’t simply a hunter and a rifle. It involved the professional hunting team, the skinning crew and the people responsible for processing the meat.

One old bull has been removed from the population.

But the herd remains. The younger breeding bulls take over. And the landowner still has every reason to keep giraffe thriving across his property.

“Wildlife that has value has a future” - The Origins Foundation

24/08/2026

Tensions rise as the harvest draws to an end.

Canoes start coming and going, some with more meat than others. With four villages spread around this specific bay, there were many people waiting for their share.

The skull makes its way to our boat, the only thing we’ll be taking back to camp with us.

But as the meat is distributed and less remains, things start to get heated. People begin pulling at whatever they can get. Knives and axes waving about as people scramble to secure the last of the meat. Orlando ensures that the women who didn’t manage to get their share don’t go home empty-handed.

This is the reality of rural Africa, not perceived savagery, but scarcity. These people aren’t fighting because they are uncivilised or ravenous; they are fighting over a resource that matters deeply to their families and communities. When there is little to go around and hundreds of people are waiting for their share, tensions are inevitable. This is what makes a harvest like this so significant: every piece of meat has value, and for many, it means food on the table.

23/08/2026

The harvest begins.

The first to go is the tail of the hippo. In this part of Mozambique, the tail is returned to the water, an old local custom, offered back to the depths of Cahora Bassa in acknowledgement of the spirits believed to dwell within them.

A hippo is a lot of animal, and harvesting one is no small task. The meat will be put to use by the surrounding communities. What follows is less about the trophy and more about the harvest, a visceral process that not everyone can stomach.

22/08/2026

There’s nothing easy about the last buffalo hunt of the year.

By the time the season winds down in Niassa, the heat and humidity have settled in, the early rains have transformed the bush into a wall of thick, green cover, and finding buffalo becomes a test of sheer persistence.

Somewhere along the tracks, a river offers us a brief reprieve, a chance to cool off, eat something and catch your breath before stepping back into the heat and getting back on the tracks.

Endereço

Niassa

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