A South African big game hunter has died after being charged by a buffalo while preparing to remove the carcass of his latest kill.

Professional hunter Claude Kleynhans, 54, who ran a hunting safari lodge, had been leading clients on an expedition along the Levubu River in the northern Limpopo province when the incident occurred last Tuesday.

The party had shot and killed a buffalo as planned, but as Kleynhans began clearing the bush around the body of the dead animal in order to place it on his jeep, he was caught off guard by a sudden attack.

“A large male buffalo charged at him out of the bush, tearing his femoral artery with its horn”, The Times reports.

The buffalo is thought to belong to the same herd as the animal shot by Kleynhans.

The hunter died “almost instantly”, reports local newspaper Bosveld Review. No-one else was harmed.

The father of three was “one of the country’s finest ethical hunters” and “knew the bush well”, said the paper, describing the death as a “freak accident”.

His sister-in-law told Afrikaans news blog Maroela Media that hunting was her brother-in-law’s passion and that the buffalo was his favourite animal. “He died doing what he loved,” she said.