Trophy hunting can be a lifeline for Africa's wildlife

The Telegraph ^ | July 29, 2015 | Jonathan Young

[Hojczyk]

Western armchair animal lovers may rail against the ethics of trophy hunting in Africa but it brings considerable income to poor countries. A 2006 scientific paper estimated that “trophy hunting generates gross revenues of at least $201 million per year in sub-Saharan Africa: from a minimum of 18,500 clients”. It also found that “a minimum of 1,394,000 km2 is used for trophy hunting” and concluded that it creates “economic incentives for conservation over vast areas”.

Legalised, controlled hunting can be a lifeline for some of Africa’s most endangered species – and South Africa is leading the way. While most of Africa’s black rhino population is under assault from poaching, with a decline from some 500,000 animals at the turn of the 20th century to just over 5,000 today, the white rhino population has grown from 50 in the 1900s to over 20,000 today. And most of those are in South Africa, where you can legally hunt them.

Many hunters think other African countries should follow South Africa’s example and encourage well-organised, controlled culling of species, so giving them a value to those that live with them. They argue that a rhino, like anything else, will eventually die of old age, so why not allow an elderly beast to be shot and charge fees that can be used to fund effective anti-poaching measures?

That argument fails to convince those who find any form of hunting repugnant, who condemn anyone who hunts as “barbaric”, a term routinely used against those who follow fieldsports here. But being an “animal lover” does not automatically make you a good conservationist.

[BitWielder1]

Responsible Hunting is a great way to keep animal populations healthy.
Too many and they starve and spread disease.

Libs want to limit the human population, so what's the big deal about one elderly lion?

[NormsRevenge]

Killing nature to save nature.. Brilliant!!

[Twinkie]

We have to eat to live. I don’t want to exist on a vegetarian diet. (I can’t eat shellfish. Headaches. Pork aggravates my arthritis. So, it’s beef, chicken & fish for me.) - Husband shoots squirrels that raid his pear trees in alarming numbers. Cleaning squirrels is very difficult & will only do that if starving; the buzzards out here welcome the change from their usual roadkill diet. - I wouldn’t hunt for trophy heads hung on my wall; but a few people can afford it & enjoy it. - Puzzles me; but I don’t condemn them. - Live & let live.

[Sacajaweau]

http://www.historyinink.com/1431444_George_Eastman_TLS_10-27-1926.htm

[cyclotic]

I had that exact conversation with a safari guide while we were seated together on a flight.

Managed hunting protects species. Period.

I can’t stand it when people assign human sensibilities to animals

[TYVets]

Back in the good old days when the US government sold billions of board feet of lumber a percentage of those sales went into the fund to fight forest fires.

Toward the end of the Clinton presidency moneys had to be transferred into that fund, due to the fact that timber sales were less than 10% of past sales.

The Spotted Owl killed timber sales and fire fighting funds, while the forests grew until they were prime for the big fires.

Persons can only manage forests and animals, not preserve them like the baby's first pair of shoes

[onedoug]

The way it was done.

[Hojczyk]

Most of the forest in the Rocky Mountains are dead or dying,,,the little beetle which we cannot spray….

[ExCTCitizen]

To liberals, a lion has more rights than a human baby in the womb...we should tell libs if they ban abortion, we will ban the hunting of lions in Africa.

[minnesota_bound]

Remember that lion that recently bite the women to death?
Way too much outrage for this killing of the lion. It even made little Jimmy Kimmel cry. I suspect he did not choke up when that lady was killed by the lion.