Presidential shootings

National Geographic in September 1909 published an article "Where Roosevelt will hunt". This covered the areas he would go on hunting safaris in Africa . This photograph shows 2 Zebra shot in the Great Rift Valley.

In April 1909, with his son Kermit he landed in Mombasa . Roosevelt, with 250 porters and guides, trekked across British East Africa, into the Belgian Congo and back to the Nile ending in Khartoum. The ex-president (he handed the Presidency over to Taft) appears to have enjoyed himself. The expedition collected 1,100 specimens, including 500 big game. "The most noteworthy collection of big animals that has ever come out of Africa" claimed.

Collecting meant killing and having the animals stuffed as trophies. Theodore and Kermit killed at least 512 animals including 17 lion, 11 elephant and 20 rhinoceros.

They hunted for a whole year and then went to England for the funeral of King Edward VII and on to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War. He returned to the U.S. in June, 1910.