When I first learned of  Sasha Siemel I was about 15 years of age and thoroughly enraptured with any Peter Hathaway Capstick or Hemmingway story which I could get my hands upon.
One day while visiting back home I was laying across my bed on a lazy afternoon during one of those frequent sunny day downpours of which the State of Florida is well known for, and I was quite thoroughly engrossed in reading a Capstick book entitled: Death In The Silent Places.

It was within this book that I started reading about the exploits and adventures of whom I consider the greatest big game hunter ever to walk the face of this earth:  Alexander “Sasha” Siemel

Mr. Siemel  was employed by South American Cattle Ranchers down in Pantanal to help keep the Jaguar numbers down (depredation to us Americans) and to keep their stock numbers from suffering too greatly from the big cats which number very high in that particular area. Now this in itself  does not sound like such a great feat until you read about HOW he achieved his nickname: EL TIGRERO’

You see Sasha only hunted the big cats with a single Spear, and a pack of trained Hound’s!  And he is credited for killing over 300 of the beast’s in this very fashion.  I am not saying that killing big cats with a rifle is not challenging and as a matter of fact I have killed several big cats myself using a rifle or my 44 mag. pistol, and some of those situations were very up close and very personal if you get my drift concerning the, shall we say “moisture factor”!

But, a spear and dog’s?  Now that is an entirely different situation altogether and although I have done my fair share of “Live Catching” wild boar armed with nothing more than my  dogs and a roll of duct tape, skewering a ferociously maddened Jaguar with a only a 7′ spear and a few baying hounds as “protection?”  I would have to think long and hard before embarking upon that adventure!

Click upon this link and go read about the Greatest Hunter of  our recently past century:  Alexander “Sasha” Siemel