Informant38

Lion facing extinction
23,000 remain, many carrying feline AIDS and bovine tuberculosis
�Robert Uhlig/The Age (AU) 09.19.03
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ΩThese paragraphs are missing, for obvious reasons, from most of the big-media reprise of this New Scientist article: (temp. reg. req. to access archives)

The alternative is trophy hunting. Many people don't like the idea, and it has been banned in Kenya for the past 25 years. Frank is a reluctant supporter - as long as hunting is properly regulated and doesn't put predator populations at risk. "Paid hunting has brought about a huge resurgence of wildlife in South Africa and Namibia, and it is a mainstay of the economy in Tanzania, Botswana and Zimbabwe," says Frank. Sport hunting requires the preservation of large tracts of land because it takes a large, healthy population of animals to produce a few old trophy males. It is also more robust than tourism: Zimbabwe no longer has an ecotourism industry but sport hunting is still going strong.

If conservation is to succeed, there must be a balance between the needs of the carnivores and the needs of the people. If persistent livestock killers aren't dealt with, people will revert to shooting and poisoning predators. Trophy hunting may be unpalatable, but it is practical. "A trophy hunter will spend $30,000 to shoot a big male lion. Apparently some will pay $15,000 for a female," says Frank. "In Laikipia you could make half a million dollars a year by shooting the problem animals that are going to be killed anyhow." That would be enough to offset the cost of the entire local lion population for the next decade.