Is trophy hunting actually “conservation”?

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On the night of 1st July 2015, a 12 year old magnificent African male lion Cecil was lured by the smell of an elephant carcass. As he happily began to devour the meat, a sharp and lethal arrow shot from a nearby bush found its mark in Cecil’s abdomen. As the critically wounded lion struggled on his feet to flee the area, his pursuers waited patiently and followed him 350 meters to the area where he lay wounded, only to shoot a second arrow to finish him off. His body was skinned and his head removed to be further transported out of Africa. Cecil the lion was one of the unfortunate victim of the game of trophy hunting.

Is trophy hunting actually conservation? — *“Until the lion has its own storyteller, tales of the lion hunt will always glorify the hunter”.* *An African proverb*

His death might have gone undetected, had he not been a study animal at the Hwange National Park at Zimbabwe. His GPS fitted collar ceased to send signals after 6 days of his death, alerting the wildlife researchers to investigate further and arrive at the shocking conclusion. Cecil was hunted in an area prohibited for hunting!

What followed was a huge uproar which shook the world, got his hunters arrested, dominated the front pages of print media and voted him amongst the ‘Most Influential Animals of 2016’ – Cecil the lion had changed the age old african proverb.

But the world hasn’t changed yet; or 7 years later 137 animal right activists from all over the world, wouldn’t have been compelled to release a joint position paper condemning trophy hunting, as one of the worst ways to exploit animals.

So what exactly is Trophy Hunting?

Trophy Hunting is a special form of hunting, wherein the hunter collects a body part of the animal such as the head, horn, antlers or skin to display it as a trophy – just like a trophy cup won at a sport tournament.

What many people are unaware of is, trophy hunting is perfectly legal in certain parts of the world. Hence this distinguishes it from the act of poaching which is illegal hunting carried out in a area or country where hunting is prohibited.

Definition according to The Conference of Parties of the Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species( CITES)

Any whole animal, or a readily cognizable part / derivative of an animal, specified on any accompanying CITES permit or certificate that: is raw, processed or manufactured; was legally obtained by the hunter for the hunter’s personal use; and is being imported, exported, or re-exported by or on behalf of the hunter, as part of the transfer from its country of origin, ultimately to the hunter’s State of usual residence.

History of Trophy Hunting

Hunting as a sport was always famous throughout the history. However, this sport was reserved only for the elite and the royalty. Ancient kings had reserved some areas of the forests in their kingdom only for hunting.

In India, the ancient kings had hunting grounds and employed skilled hunters during their hunting expeditions. However, British rulers often indulged in massive killings leading to widespread extinctions of many species of animals and birds.

Many European and Americans have patronized and founded the trophy hunting clubs thereby laying foundation of the present day booming hunting industry.

How is trophy hunting carried out?

Big cats like lions, tigers and leopards are often hunted from a makeshift blind positioned 50-80 meters from a bait (typically a carcass of locally available prey hung from a tree)

Hunters often drag the bait along game trails for 500- 1000 meters to lure a starving animal. Piles of watermelons and other fruits are used to lure out elephants from protected national park.

Hunters are permitted to use bows and arrows and guns as per laws of the country.

Once confirmed dead, the animal is transported to another make shift area, where its skin is removed and salted to preserve the hide.The parts to be taken as trophy are removed, boiled cleaned up and prepared for transportation.

According to international laws, every trophy hunt undertaken, has to be approved and documented by the park officer.

Trophy Hunting Statistics (According to CITES)

200000+ trophies of threatened species and 1, 700000 trophies of non threatened species were traded between 2004-2014.
107 countries participate annually in trophy hunting trade
US accounts for 71% of import demand. Germany and Spain (5%) are next highest.Canada(35%), South Africa (23%) and Namibia(11%) make for 69% of killing and importing their trophies.
Cecil was killed in Zimbabwe by Dr. Walter Palmer who paid $54000 in the year 2015.
$62000 was the price tag to kill a well known African tusker.
$350000 was paid by Corey Knowlton to kill one black rhino in Namibia.

Which animals are most sought after?

Many different species of mammals ,birds and reptiles are hunted. The African Big 5 (African buffalo, leopard, white rhino, African lion and African Elephant) are most sought after animals – 3 of whom belong to threatened taxa. The price ranges from $15 K to $125 K.

Apart from Big 5 , wolves, hippopotamus, black bears, crocodiles, African and Asian caracal blackbuck, polar bears, mountain lions, puma Argali and asian white sheep are some of the top 20 most sought after species.

The business of Trophy Hunting

Andrew Loveridge, wildlife biologist and the author of the book Lion Hearted was the one who had collared Cecil to monitor him. In his book he wildly narrates the dark secrets of trophy hunting business.

According to him, In safari areas, the National Parks management allocate a quota of wild animals that can be hunted each year to a professional safari-hunting operators.These operators then markets the quotas to trophy hunters, most often wealthy North Americans or Europeans, who pay large sums to come on hunting safaris and take home the “trophies”

In a visit to an international event organized by Safari Club International (SCI)-one of the largest hunting organization, Loveridge describes the variety of exhibits displayed ranging from stalls selling expensive and custom-made handguns, hunting gear, wildlife artwork to trinkets and stuffed offerings.

SCI also keeps one of the largest and most detailed record books, which may include photographs of the hunter with the kill, characteristics of the animal hunted (tusk, horn, antler, skull, body size, etc) and details about the weapon used and location of the kill.

Laws and Policies

Many scientists , researchers and governments are still clueless about how to interplay trophy hunting sport with wildlife management and conservation.

Countries like India, Kenya, Costa Rica, Botswana and Brazil where the wild population is declining at an alarming rate, had put a ban on this sport. South Africa has stopped issuing leopard hunting permits since 2016.

CITES was formed in 1973 to regulate the trade of more than 35000 wild animals and plants species across countries to preserve certain species from over exploitation. CITES has more than 181 signatories countries. Approximately one million trade records of CITES-listed wildlife species are reported annually and these data are entered into the CITES Trade Database.

Practically speaking it only regulates the trade- CITES do view trophy hunting as a useful conservation tool.

Is Trophy Hunting contributing to wildlife conservation?

Trophy hunting was allowed to flourish in limited capacity to boost ecotourism. In case of African countries struggling with poverty, Trophy hunting is often seen as a tool for financing conservation and studies have demonstrated the social and economic contributions of hunting including generating income and employment.

Local communities often view a large kill as a money making chance ,since people are needed to assist all operations from locating the animal to cleaning up the body.

According to various studies, barely 3% of the money made from trophy hunting really makes it to local communities.

Is all trophy hunting legal?

In addition to this, not all trophy hunting are carried out legally. There is no concern towards the pain and suffering of the animal. Hunters often spend absurd amounts of money to kill most dangerous animals for pleasure, display and to satisfy their ego. Often inhumane methods such as use of snares, gases, chasing the animals till it gets exhausted and mortally wounding the animal with bow and arrow or pistols are used.

Currently, wildlife populations are declining worldwide owing to rapid urbanization, habitat destruction and deforestation. Humans and wildlife are sharing spaces in many landscapes giving rise to the ever increasing man – animal conflicts. Wild animals are under tremendous pressure to survive and sustain the future generations.

What are the knock on impacts of trophy hunting?

Studies have shown that, in some cases, hunting has an effect on the social organization of wild animals and on the genetic makeup of a given population especially in case of social animals like lions and elephants, the death of a main leader makes the whole group vulnerable to future threats.

However, death at the hands of people is the most common and most significant cause of population decline among large predators, whether tigers in the Russia, jaguars in the Brazil, or clouded leopards in deforested Borneo according to Andrew Loveridge.

As he aptly puts -It would have cost $1 million a year to protect Cecil and his surrounding ecosystem. Over a twelve-year period, this would have amounted to $12 million dollars. Considering the meagre $2000 per sq km- an amount spent by the park management, there is no doubt that trophy hunting has huge support in Africa.

Finally he throws the burning question right in our face “Should we ,as highly civilized society permit killing of an innocent animal that poses no threat to the hunter, his family, or his livelihood—an animal that will not be consumed or used for any purpose other than hanging up as a taxidermal trophy?”