Douglas Hamilton - Big-game Hunting

Big-game Hunting

Douglas Hamilton's earliest introduction to big game shooting was at Kulladghee in 1839. In those days Blackbuck antelopes were very numerous, but very wild and difficult to approach.

In 1854, Hamilton bought Mallock's Bungalow at Pykara for 200 rupees. This is the well known hut, where for many years he entertained and showed sport to many of his friends, amongst whom were Prince Frederick of Schleswig Holstein, Sir Victor Brooke, Bob Jago father of the Ootacamund Hunt, and the oldest and most intimate of all, General James Michael. The hut was still in his possession when he died 38 years later.

He closely observed over 50 wild tigers during his career and In 1854 he killed his first tiger at the Avalanche in the Nilgiri Hills. One tiger he killed in 1857 was 98 in (250 cm) long and 38 in (97 cm) tall at the shoulder. A friend of Hamilton, Colonel Nightingale, once killed eight tigers in six days, including a man eater that attacked him and the trained elephant he was riding. That tiger was 50 in (130 cm) tall at the shoulder and 122 in (310 cm) long with length of skin, 150 in (380 cm).

In 1855 in the Annaimalai Hills, he killed his first elephant, a large tusker which measured 110 in (280 cm)nine feet two inches at the shoulder, with tusks 5.5 in (14 cm) in diameter and 64.5 in (164 cm) and 57 in (140 cm) long, respectively.

In 1863, at Hassanoor together with Sir Victor Brooke, Hamilton shot the largest elephant ever killed in Southern India. This trophy had one perfect tusk 96 in (240 cm) long and a broken tusk measuring 71 in (180 cm) long. It was 11 feet (3.4 m) tall at the shoulder.

Between 1855 and 1869, Hamilton shot and killed two hundred and ninety-five sambar. The largest ever killed in the Nilgiri Hills, Shot by Hamilton, stood fourteen hands (56 in (140 cm)) high at the shoulder and antlers measuring 41.5 in (105 cm) and 38.75 in (98.4 cm), respectively.

In 1856 he was attacked and run over by a large injured bison bull he shot in the Annaimalai Hills, but suffered only minor injuries. The larger horn was 35 in (89 cm) long and 5.75 in (14.6 cm) in diameter at the base. He killed his last bison at Permund in 1866.

He did not kill many leopards, but did kill one fine specimen of a black Leopard near his hut in 1857. He shot his last leopard in 1870, an old male 74 in (190 cm) long with a beautiful skin.

In 1861, Hamilton recorded 114 species of birds near Kodaikanal.