January 2016- Trophy Hunting.Pdf
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1 CECIL THE LION: DOES KILLING LIONS HELP SAVE THEM? ROBERT FERRIS CNBC JULY 29, 2015 A male African lion was shot by an American hunter near the border of a national park in Zimbabwe where the lion lived with several lionesses and cubs, and the death has reignited a debate about whether the hunting of big game animals—particularly those that may be threatened or endangered—helps fund conservation efforts that would otherwise lack support. The lion, named "Cecil" by locals, was a favorite attraction for tourists visiting the park. He reportedly was shot by a dentist from Minnesota named Walter Palmer, an avid big game hunter who is believed to have paid around $50,000 to kill the animal, according to reports from the Associated Press. The hunt may have been illegal. The Zimbabwean government has arrested both the professional guide and the owner of the land where the hunt took place, said Johnny Rodrigues, executive chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a conservation group based in Zimbabwe. Local hunter Theo Bronchorst and game park owner Honest Trymore Ndlovu, who allegedly "connived" to kill Cecil the lion, appeared court in Hwange on Wednesday. They did not speak to reporters. Killing lions and other big game is sometimes legal, if permits are obtained and rules are followed. Palmer told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he believed the hunt was legal, but some activists, including Rodrigues, question that assertion. A man shot a lion in Africa, and the Internet exploded. 2 Andy Loveridge | AP In this undated photo provided by the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Cecil the lion rests in Hwange National Park, in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Two Zimbabweans arrested for illegally hunting a lion appeared in court Wednesday, July 29, 2015. A male African lion was shot by an American hunter near the border of a national park in Zimbabwe where the lion lived with several lionesses and cubs, and the death has reignited a debate about whether the hunting of big game animals—particularly those that may be threatened or endangered—helps fund conservation efforts that would otherwise lack support. The lion, named "Cecil" by locals, was a favorite attraction for tourists visiting the park. He reportedly was shot by a dentist from Minnesota named Walter Palmer, an avid big game hunter who is believed to have paid around $50,000 to kill the animal, according to reports from the Associated Press. The hunt may have been illegal. The Zimbabwean government has arrested both the professional guide and the owner of the land where the hunt took place, said Johnny Rodrigues, executive chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a conservation group based in Zimbabwe. Local hunter Theo Bronchorst and game park owner Honest Trymore Ndlovu, who allegedly "connived" to kill Cecil the lion, appeared court in Hwange on Wednesday. They did not speak to reporters. 3 Killing lions and other big game is sometimes legal, if permits are obtained and rules are followed. Palmer told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he believed the hunt was legal, but some activists, including Rodrigues, question that assertion. Conservation groups are divided about whether trophy hunting is a ultimately beneficial to wild populations of animals. Many say that if it's managed properly, it can aid conservation by providing needed revenue for fighting poaching and helping other efforts. A 2009 report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said that regulated hunting can help conservation efforts, but that its record has produced "mixed results." Jeff Flocken, North American director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said most people are unaware that lions and other big game animals are regularly killed for sport. "The real question here is, 'Why are we allowing these imperiled species to be killed for fun?'" Flocken said. "Lions, elephants and rhinos are being killed for sport, often by Americans." Flocken said that polls show that 80 percent of Americans across party lines are against the hunting of endangered animals for sport. His group is one of several that have pushed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to place lions on the endangered species list. Those efforts have been unsuccessful so far. While the Endangered Species Act is unenforceable outside the United States, it does ban the transport of endangered animal products—including trophies—into the U.S. A spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency is "deeply concerned" about the killing of the lion Cecil and is gathering facts about the case. "In 2014, the service proposed listing the lion as threatened under the Endangered Species Act with a special rule that would establish a permitting mechanism for the importation of sport-hunted lion trophies, provided that the lions originate from countries with a scientifically sound management plan for African lions," the service said in a statement. "The public comment period for that proposal closed in late 4 January, and we are currently working on preparing a final rule. That process generally takes a year." A staffer for an international hunting and conservation association called the Safari Club International Foundation wrote an editorial in National Geographic in 2013 contending that hunting funnels money toward conservation. In theory, the fees paid by hunters like Palmer go toward saving species. The editorial also said that scientific evidence does not support the notion that lions are endangered, though their numbers in the wild have almost halved in the last two decades. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the biggest threats to lions are habitat loss, loss of available prey and retaliation from humans for killing livestock. Flocken is skeptical of trophy hunters' arguments, saying that "studies have found that as little at 3-5 percent of that money actually gets to people on the ground." He also said that attempts to compare hunting with "nonlethal" tourism, such as wildlife watching, places "the revenue from hunting in Africa in the millions, and revenue from nonlethal tourism in the billions." 5 Wolf Pack Size Has Big Impact on Livestock Attacks Joshua Rapp Learn Wildlife.org December 1, 2015 New information about the likelihood that a wolf pack will reattack livestock could give wildlife managers better tools to prevent such conflicts. “We found that the biggest factor that affected the depredation recurrence was pack size,” said Liz Bradley, a biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the lead author of a study published recently in The Journal of Wildlife Management. The researchers analyzed reports on nearly 1,000 attacks from approximately 150 grey wolf (Canis lupus) packs on livestock in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana from 1989-2008, paying particular attention to the length of time between depredations. Of these, they looked at how quickly another attack on livestock occurred if they removed part of the pack, the whole pack, or did nothing at all. “What was more surprising was that the partial pack removals weren’t that much more effective than doing nothing,” Bradley said, adding that removing the whole pack was the most effective action at reducing the likelihood of another attack. Removing part of the pack meant an average of 64 days between attacks on livestock while removing the whole pack resulted in a 730-day average period between livestock depredations. When nothing was done, there was an average of 19 days between attacks. Another finding, she said, was that killing a few wolves at a time isn’t always a very effective solution, and sometimes could result in more wolves being killed in the long run than just removing the entire pack on the first or second offence. She said that during the study years, wolves had not yet been delisted in Montana and Idaho, so wildlife managers were still trying to strike a careful balance between removing the least number of wolves possible to ensure a sustained population with stopping the carnivores going after livestock. Despite the effectiveness of removing an entire pack, preventing attacks on livestock in the first place is always a better option than removing wolves. Some of the 6 strategies to prevent attacks include increased human presence near livestock, Bradley said. “It’s very much a learned behavior,” she said of wolves attacking livestock. But by stopping this learning, [wildlife managers] may be able to decrease the attacks on cattle or sheep. “You don’t have to get into this whole cycle of dead cattle and dead wolves.” The study included attacks on sheep and cattle and the results showed no statistical difference in the number of attacks between the animals. They also found that livestock attacks occurred more frequently as wolf packs got bigger. Bradley said that wolf packs are smaller on average across Montana. She believes this could be part of the reason that conflicts between wolves and livestock are decreasing in the state despite the wolf population going up. Larger packs are more likely to “stay in trouble once they get in trouble,” but she indicated that further studies will be needed to confirm this. 7 CAN HUNTING HELP SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES? Jennifer Bove About Education Since there are no clear-cut solutions when it comes to saving endangered species, the concept of conservation is subject to interpretation. Of course, unconventional approaches are often met with criticism, and controversy ensues. Case in point: the use of hunting as a tool for protecting endangered species from extinction. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Let's explore both sides of the argument so that you can decide which side of this divisive management scheme makes sense to you. Shoot to Save? The idea is simple: put a price on a rare species' head, and let hunters foot the bill for managing and sustaining the population.