Black Death: Cape Buffalo Tragically Kills Texas Hunter

Doug Howlett

In Africa, hunters pursue Cape buffalo knowing there is risk. That’s part of the draw. You can feel it in the heat and the dust and the silence before the tracker’s signal. It’s a big part of why sportsmen go there. It’s unlike any other experience in the world. And once a hunter goes, they say, he will always want to return.

The rifle is heavy and familiar in their hands. The professional hunter beside them is calm. He’s done this before. There is comfort in that. There is confidence. The odds are good. They nearly always are. And most people who pursue these dangerous animals, after finding their trophy, will go home.

Asher Watkins will not. His trophy found him first.

Tragedy Strikes in South Africa

Watkins, 52, was killed August 3 while hunting South Africa’s Limpopo Province with Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CVS). He was an accomplished man of the outdoors. A lifelong hunter and Dallas land broker, he was raised on his family’s cattle and hunting ranch in Texas before going on to found the Watkins Ranch Group, a real-estate firm specializing in large, luxury ranch properties in Texas, Colorado and Arkansas. He was also a dedicated conservationist and active member of the Dallas Safari Club, Ducks Unlimited and the American Association of Professional Landmen.

Asher Watkins Outdoors Facebook Post

Watkins went to Limpopo Province to hunt Cape Buffalo. He, along with a PH and tracker, were on the trail of a large bull. Locals called the bull Black Death. The animal weighed more than a ton and carried the thick bosses of a fighter. They tracked him in the 50,000-acre Bambisana concession where the trackers read the spoor in the dust. The buffalo was ahead of them. He wasn’t wounded, but as news sources described, he was “agitated.” He knew hunters were on his trail. The sun was high. The men were optimistic. The wind was right. Then it wasn’t.

The bull charged without warning; all muscle and horn bearing down on the men. Watkins likely never had a chance to even level his rifle. The charge was straight and hard and final, the bull’s horns catching the man, goring him, smashing him to the ground and killing him instantly according to the outfitter. It would be like getting struck by a train.

“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts we confirm the tragic death of our client and friend Asher Watkins from the United States,” CVS hunter Hans Vermaak posted on the homepage of the outfitter’s website. “On Sunday, while on a hunting safari with us in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, Asher was fatally injured in a sudden and unprovoked attack by an unwounded buffalo…”

Newsweek reports that at the lodge, his mother Gwen, stepfather Tony and brother Amon awaited his return. The news of their loved one’s death reached them instead.

Most Dangerous Game

Cape buffalo are part of the Big Five of dangerous game—lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. They are considered by many to be the most dangerous. They can run as fast as 35 miles an hour and turn sharper than a cutting horse They kill roughly 200 people each year and have likely accounted for the deaths of hunters on the continent more than any other game animal.

Most hunts go off without injury, particularly when a steely nerved PH with a heavy-caliber double rifle has your back…or sometimes steps in to finish the beast so an unnerved hunter doesn’t have to take the risk. Wounded buffalo are notorious for aggressive charges, often striking and then stomping to death whatever threatens them. There is no shortage of videos on YouTube or tales from hunters who pursued them of harrowing close calls and near-maiming experiences.

Cape buffalo are considered by many to be the most dangerous of Africa’s Big Five game animals.

Cape buffalo are also the least expensive to hunt, “least expensive” being a relative term with some hunts running as much as $10,000 to $15,000. They travel in large herds and are plentiful throughout South Africa and other parts of the continent. The cost and numbers make them probably the most sought after Big Five animal. This reality puts more hunters face to face with potential danger.

“On an African safari with his beloved mother, brother and stepdad, Asher came face-to-face with one of Africa’s legendary buffalo. In a moment of fearlessness as he lived his life, he met the challenge head-on, leaving this world a man of courage, faith and adventure,” his friend Shannon Wherry wrote on social media according to Newsweek.

“This is a devastating incident, and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Vermaak wrote on CVS’s website.

South African authorities have opened an inquest. But this is likely nothing more than the balance of nature tipping the scales in favor of the beast. In the bush it can happen. Watkins knew that possibility was always on the table. All hunters who come for Cape buffalo know that. You take the rifle. You follow the tracks. Most of the time you go home. Sometimes, sadly, you don’t.

Read the classic Ernest Hemingway tale of a tragic buffalo hunt in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”