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#Big game trophy hunter game license
One license might generate $2,500 for conservation, if you’re lucky. The total tally for one license? 23 lions!” On average a pride may have between 10 and 20 cubs (if the average pride is 8 females.) One license kills one male and his partner, as well as about 20 cubs, and often a mother who dies while trying to defend her cubs. Males coming in have one desire: to start their own families, and not bring up the ousted male’s cubs. “Males often work and live in groups of 2 or 3,” explains Joubert, saying that “When one is killed, the remaining males are left vulnerable to attack, and are most often ousted by marauding males. Why? A single license generally allows for the kill of a mature male, and the elimination of a dominant male from a pride severely shifts the dynamics within the herd. Killing one lion might as well mean killing 23 lions. According to Joubert, population levels for lions in Africa have shrunk by 95% in the last 60 years, meaning that any decline would have registered far more recently. The largest decline in lions has happened through and era when hunting was the dominant ‘management’ form.”Īs for reports that famous conservation activists, like Charles Darwin, once hunted game-rest assured that population numbers had not yet hit their steep decline in the 1800’s or even the early 1900’s, when Teddy Roosevelt was said to hunt for game. Says Joubert, “‘Conservation’ by hunting is an archaic and selfish concept that hides behind conservation to justify its existence. “Quite simply, big game hunting is driven by money as is lion, elephant or rhino poaching,” says Ashish Sanghrajka, President of Big Five Tours & Expeditions, explaining that “agricultural” hunting, or hunting for population control, is a thinly veiled excuse for big business. Is there such a thing as hunting for population control? And as a traveler with few trusted authorities to turn to, there’s simply no way to know which operations are truly legal and which are operating as poachers in disguise. But the outlook as a whole is dire-proven by incidents like Cecil’s that show that even legally procured licenses can (and far too often do) result in illegal baiting and unlawful kills. Why the conflicting information, even among the industry’s elite? Corruption and enforcement varies from country to country. Still, we’ve heard first-hand accounts from individual safari guides and respected safari companies that hunting can be done in a responsible way. By extension of this logic, only $1,500 to $2,500 of Palmer’s $50,000 fee will go back to conservation efforts. Does the money generated from hunting licenses justify the practice?ĭereck Joubert of the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, whose 2011 film The Last Lions is just one of many accomplishments over decades of conservation work, put it plainly: “The science is clear, lion populations decline where there is hunting.” He says very little revenue from hunts ends up supporting wildlife initiatives, and outside sources agree, estimating that only 3-5 percent of hunting fees are returned to conservation groups. So we talked to some of Africa’s most trusted, most esteemed conservators about the practice of game hunting to set the record straight-the good, the bad, and the (often incredibly) ugly. But awareness alone isn’t enough, especially when the sentimentally charged conversation happens in a void. This, itself, is the greatest gift that Cecil could have given to his brethren. Millions of readers and wildlife-lovers have had their sympathies roused by Cecil’s death, and the conversation surrounding conservation has never been louder. And that’s saying nothing of the tens of thousands of petition-signers, Yelp activists, and news outlets chasing the story.Ĭecil did not die in vain. The outrage surrounding the incident has been relentless: on the last three days on Twitter alone, 1.5 million pronouncements have been made about the black-maned lion and Walter Palmer, the hunter/dentist who hunted him down earlier this month. Anyone who has not yet heard about the tragic killing of Cecil the lion-the subject of an Oxford University research study and beloved Hwange National Park resident-might as well be living under a rock.