Professional Hunter

Danene van der Westhuyzen

She is a professional hunter at Aru Game Lodges, which is a family business venture. She is also the manager of this company.

“Here I gained an extreme amount of experience, and I loved practicing this profession every minute of the day. I still work as a locum whenever I get the time. Through my privileged upbringing and spending weekends and holidays in the veld, I have developed a strong sense of appreciation and responsibility for nature and our precious wildlife in Namibia,” says Danene van der Westhuyzen.

“This twenty-four hour a day profession offers unlimited fresh air, including rain, sun and dust. I am booking agent, raconteur and socialite, expert card player, bartender, caterer, barbecuer, philosopher and African historian.

I gain knowledge every day in engineering, local architecture, labour relations, navigation, medicine and pharmacology, botany, zoology, ichthyology, mineralogy, entomology, butchery, taxidermy, dietetics, optics, photography and radio operation. Skills gained (and continuously working on) in mechanics, driving, gunsmithing, toxicology, ballistics, tracking, marksmanship and hand loading,” she further adds.

Since 2006, she has been a professional hunter and in 2013, she was elected as the vice president of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association. In 2016 she became the president of this very prestigious association.

She became one of the first female dangerous game PH in Namibia and achieved a professional hunter status.