Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

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Lisbeth
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Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

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http://conservationaction.co.za/recent- ... e-killing/

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BY ANDREAS WILSON-SPÄTH - 27 JUNE 2016 - NEWS24

I’ve never understood the appeal of trophy hunting. You love wild animals so much that you want to kill them, stuff them, pop glass marbles into their eye sockets and display them above the lounge mantelpiece? You’re trying to impress others with your sharp-shooting prowess by installing a macabre menagerie of the fearsome beasts you’ve “bagged” in your pool house? I don’t get it.

I guess I could come up with a plausible pop-psychology explanation. Something to do with a primordial killer instinct dating back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, our innate pseudo-religious or pseudo-Darwinian need to dominate nature, or just the satisfaction that comes from collecting lots of pretty things. Perhaps some people derive a certain dark satisfaction from being able to legally put a bullet through another living creature’s heart and seeing the life seep out of it in a trickle of blood.

Alternatively, I guess, we could simply dismiss this bloody pastime as a distraction for the seriously rich who lack the imagination to find other things to do with their time and money. But how big a hobby is trophy hunting actually? How many animals get shot for the express purpose of being turned into supposedly decorative display pieces? And what role does South Africa play in this business?

The answers may shock you even if you’re not particularly squeamish about the idea of killing animals for sport.

Earlier this month, the International Fund for Animal Welfare published a report, titled ‘Killing for Trophies’, in which the global wild animal trophy trade between 2004 and 2014 is analysed on the basis of data collected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

During that decade around 1.7 million hunting trophies were traded between over 100 different countries. Of these, at least 200 000 came from threatened animal species. All of this, by the way, is perfectly legal and in line with CITES regulations. The size of the black market in animal trophies is unknown.

US citizens are the keenest trophy hunters on the planet. Twenty countries account for 97% of all trophy imports, with a massive 71% (over 150,000 trophies) going to the USA. Germany and Spain occupy a distant second/third position at 5% each, while South Africa is fourth with 6460 imported trophies.

The highest ranking trophy exporting country is Canada, with a 35% share of the global trade (68,899 trophies, most of them American black bears going to the USA). South Africa comes in second (23% or 44 700 trophies) and Namibia third (11% or 22 394 trophies).

Of the top 20 trophy exporting nations, half are in Africa.

African elephants and leopards are among the top six most traded trophies from threatened animal species (more than 10 000 trophies each), but the greatest increase has occurred in the trading of African lion trophies (at least 11 000 between 2004 and 2013). No doubt this is chiefly the result of South Africa’s large industry of breeding lions in captivity specifically for the trophy hunting market.

The report confirms South Africa as by far and away the biggest exporter of trophies ‘harvested’ from captive-bred animals – a total of 7663, which is a huge number when compared to the next highest, that for the USA at only 327. The South African figure includes predominantly lions (5 253), but also other rare species, such as Lechwe (1 099).

There can be little doubt that trophy hunting is almost exclusively a pursuit of the super-rich. The report notes that in South Africa, hunters pay between US$15,000 and 35,000 for shooting a leopard, $8,500 – 50 000 for a lion and $25 000 – 60 000 for an elephant. Walter Palmer, the American dentist who infamously killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe last year reportedly paid $54,000 for the privilege.

Trophy hunters will claim that there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of this, that it’s simple market economics and that their activities provide much needed money for wildlife conservation. In essence, they argue that you need to sacrifice a few prime animals to the bullets of the wealthy in order to save the rest from extinction.

That’s some pretty warped logic as far as I’m concerned. If we truly value indigenous animals and want to make sure that they’ll be around for our grandchildren’s grandchildren to see in the wild, we’ll find funding that doesn’t require us to turn them into ghoulish stuffed displays for the creepy pleasure of a tiny minority.

Original article: http://www.news24.com/Columnists/Andrea ... isapp=true


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by okie »

Hmmm.... interesting article \O
IMHO , " trophy hunting " is merely a whitewash idea to cover an abnormal lust for killing another living being :twisted:
Going further , such people ( killers ) would probably prefer that the victim should rather be another human , and therefore by killing an animal instead , is merely a sublimation of their real lust for blood O/ :twisted:


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by Richprins »

I think many of us know hunters in SA? Well, I do, and in my experience they are all conservation-minded...

As said, it is not illegal, and the non-hunter does not understand the reasoning for it really (myself included).

But to each his own, and the money generated for communities and the economy is astronomical, as you can see! \O


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

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Assessing the sustainability of African lion trophy hunting, with recommendations for policy

BY SCOTT CREEL, JASSIEL M'SOKA, EGIL DRÖGE, ELI ROSENBLATT, MATT BECKER, WIGGANSON MATANDIKO, TWAKUNDINE SIMPAMBA - 9 JUNE 2016 - ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Abstract

While trophy hunting provides revenue for conservation, it must be carefully managed to avoid negative population impacts, particularly for long-lived species with low natural mortality rates. Trophy hunting has had negative effects on lion populations throughout Africa, and the species serves as an important case study to consider the balance of costs and benefits, and to consider the effectiveness of alternative strategies to conserve exploited species. Age-restricted harvesting is widely recommended to mitigate negative effects of lion hunting, but this recommendation was based on a population model parameterized with data from a well-protected and growing lion population. Here, we used demographic data from lions subject to more typical conditions, including source-sink dynamics between a protected National Park and adjacent hunting areas in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, to develop a stochastic population projection model and evaluate alternative harvest scenarios. Hunting resulted in population declines over a 25-year period for all continuous harvest strategies, with large declines for quotas greater than 1 lion/concession (~0.5 lion/1000 km2) and hunting of males younger than 7 years. A strategy that combined periods of recovery, an age limit of ≥ 7 years and a maximum quota of ~0.5 lions shot per 1000 km2 yielded a risk of extirpation < 10%. Our analysis incorporated the effects of human encroachment, poaching and prey depletion on survival, but assumed that these problems will not increase, which is unlikely. These results suggest conservative management of lion trophy hunting with a combination of regulations. To implement sustainable trophy hunting while maintaining revenue for conservation of hunting areas, our results suggest that hunting fees must increase as a consequence of diminished supply. These findings are broadly applicable to hunted lion populations throughout Africa, and to inform global efforts to conserve exploited carnivore populations.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Read full report here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 7/abstract


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by Lisbeth »

And canned lion Hunting? :evil:


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by okie »

Trophy hunting is trophy hunting , whether " canned " or not . It is still just a lust for killing , just for the sake of killing . You may as well kill a human being and mount his head on a piece of board , or hang his hair from your neck , or " shrink " his head , and display it on your gate post 0*\


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by stefan9 »

Richprins wrote:I think many of us know hunters in SA? Well, I do, and in my experience they are all conservation-minded...

As said, it is not illegal, and the non-hunter does not understand the reasoning for it really (myself included).

But to each his own, and the money generated for communities and the economy is astronomical, as you can see! \O
Its blood money, can never accept it...


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by okie »

I agree with you Stephan \O , and I can never condone trophy " hunting " :twisted:

Please note , I do not have any problem at all with hunting/shooting for meat or for biltong . We all ( most of us at least ) eat biltong , and enjoy a nice venison steak/ribbetjie braaied on the coals , etc .
But , to go out afterwards and brag about how you obliterated a fantastically endowed kudu/gemsbok/rhino/elephant/lion , and to make a display of it just because you think that makes you a big man 0*\


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by Lisbeth »

No hunting at all for me either 0-


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Re: Trophy hunting: the scale of the killing

Post by nan »

0*\ the beliefs all over in the world =O: O-/


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